
In the mid-1970's, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. He's Max Horowitz, an overweight man with Asperger's, living alone in New York. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. Mary falls in love with a neigh... (Full plot summary below)
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In the mid-1970's, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. He's Max Horowitz, an overweight man with Asperger's, living alone in New York. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. Mary falls in love with a neighbor, saves money to have a birthmark removed and deals with loss. Max has a friendship with a neighbor, tries to control his weight, and finally gets the dream job. Will the two ever meet face to face?
Leave your thoughts about Mary and Max.
| The SkinnyPhilip ConcannonMary and Max emerges as a tale that's both funny and sad, with Elliot's screenplay finding a perfect emotional pitch throughout. |
| Movie RetrieverBrian TallericoThe most surprisingly moving film of the year, an experience that literally knocked me back as it brought tears to my eyes. |
| CineVueDaniel GumbleA film of astonishing beauty, Mary and Max is undoubtedly one of the films of the year. |
| Daily Express (UK)Allan HunterAn unorthodox but unforgettable valentine to a friendship that blossoms between two lonely people. |
| Sight and SoundMark FisherUltimately, Mary and Max is about correspondence and lack of correspondence, about how our images and fantasies about others fail to match up to what they are like, and about the constitutive gaps and misfirings in any communicational practice. |
| ViewLondonMatthew TurnerBeautifully animated and brilliantly written, this is a wonderfully directed black comedy that's simultaneously darkly funny, extremely sweet and incredibly moving. |
| Metromix.comMatt PaisI don't know how anyone wouldn't love this splendid, beautiful, hilarious and heartbreaking film. |
| MoviedexAnders WotzkeThe animation is superb, characters endearing, humour abundant and topical themes honestly and thoroughly explored. |
| The Age (Australia)Jim SchembriOnly long after the film, and with considerable effort, do you have to remind yourself that what you went all weak-kneed and misty-eyed over was a blob of plasticine -- a superbly directed blob of plasticine. |
| Urban CinefileAndrew L. UrbanTremendously inventive, clever and wise, Mary and Max is a story for grown ups about life's dissonances. |