Director: Adam Elliot
Starring: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana
In Cinemas: 9 April 2009
While there is an ongoing flow of animated films these days, most are glossy Hollywood concoctions (DreamWorks/Pixar) or anime. Every now and again, an independent will put out an adult-themed flick that comes as a complete departure from all the others in terms of both visual and storytelling styles. Adam Elliot has most definitely achieved this with Mary and Max.
Mary and Max is a claymation tale spanning 20 years and two continents. It tells of the pen-pal relationship between two extremely different people: the obese, middle-aged, Asperger’s-suffering Max Horovitz in New York (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman); and the awkward, 8-year-old girl from Melbourne, Mary Dinkle (voiced by Toni Collette). The narration – overdone at times – is by Barry Humphries.
The 1976 opening scene paints Mary as a fairly typical introverted suburban outsider whose main source of inspiration is a cartoon show on TV. However, her life changes when she discovers a New York phonebook at the library and randomly chooses a name out of it in the hopes of finding a pen pal. As fate has it, her finger lands on Max Horovitz.
Throughout the on-again/off-again correspondence between the two, Mary and Max covers almost every gambit of life’s potholes with surprising honesty for what, from the outset, appears to be a family film. The hilarious yet poignant journey explores everything from friendship, autism, alcoholism, psychiatry, pregnancy, kleptomania, trust, religious differences, agoraphobia, taxidermy, drug abuse sexual differences and obesity, among other things.
And while there is a constant stream of humour – albeit ironic, black and childish – the film itself depicts a world of childhoods darkened by the realities of life. We are reminded that innocence is always unsafe from the impending gloom of adulthood regardless of whether you’re an awkward little girl or a simple-minded man losing his race with the clock. Part of the blame for this unshakable gloom lies with the incessant narration by Barry Humphries. His delivery, while skilful, renders Mary and Max somewhat of a depressing, animated poem.
The delicate crafting by Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot is not in question here, but rather that the whimsical story of love and compassion never quite departs from the feeling of depression. Mary and Max wallows in joyless territory for so long it is difficult to enjoy. While this is not to say these melancholy topics should not be explored, doing so in a form traditionally a children’s genre seems somewhat… off. One can admire how Mary and Max pushes the boundaries by combining animation and unsavoury topics, but is it worth the pain?
4 out of 5 stars.