In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Bethany Whitmore as the young Mary is equally impressive too and her voice has a real innocence about it. She writes him a letter to become his pen pal. Mary falls in love with a neighbor, saves money to have a birthmark removed and deals with loss. Written by Goofs When Max is seen in court the judge is seen to be wearing a old powdered wig, back dropped by an American flag. The story is bittersweet and witty, with an ironic black humor and provokes the most conflictive emotions in the viewers, funny in a moment, and depressive in the other.
He frequently goes to the Overeaters Anonymous Meeting. Philip Seymour Hoffman is again in fine form, adding a slight accent to his voice and the decision to model his voice with a character of a similar physique fits nicely. He is quickly become one of the most diverse actors in the world. Toni Collette and Eric Bana also have much smaller roles too. Regardless, it remains a mostly sharp and funny film that many will find refreshing and engaging given the home-grown talent involved. His life goals are to have a friend, Noblets and chocolate. While the world is painted in gloomy hues of brown and grey and the characters lead bleak lives, the genius of the script is that the characters never wallow or feel sorry for themselves.
Elliot has described his film as being suitable for everyone. It is extremely funny for the most part, but there is also a real sense of gloom around these characters that might not be as appealing to children. If you like adult animation, this is definitely for you. My only criticism of the film would be some of its music particularly its use in one key scene of the Humming Chorus already used so memorably in the finale of Heavenly Creatures. Along their lives, they become pen pals and their unusual friendship oscillates due to the anxiety attacks of the unstable Max. Let the true story of Mary and Max warm your heart, and maybe even jerk a tear.
On a whim, she chooses a name at random in a phone book and sends off a letter asking about life on the other side of the world. It is a film made of great patience and craftsmanship. The creator showed the audience what it is really like, in society, to have a mental disability of this kind. » In 1976, in Australia, the misfit and outcast eight-year old girl Mary Daisy Dinkle lives in Mount Waverley with her alcoholic shoplifter mother Vera Lorraine Dinkle that is addicted in Sherry and her absent father Noel Norman Dinkle that works in the Earl Grey Factory attaching strings in the teabag and spends his leisure time in his hobby - taxidermy. Mary remains curious about life and finds the address of an American living in New York. In this claymation tale, Mary is an 8 year old girl living in suburban Melbourne, Australia meets 40 year old Max in New York City all with the stroke of her pencil.
We were all very pleased. Mary is an 8 year old outcast living in the suburbs of Melbourne. Max does not have any friend, only the invisible Mr. Gradually, as they send each other letters, Mary and Max's relationship develops and we begin to learn more about their past and their heartache and insecurities of being alone. She has a complex because of her brown birthmark in the forehead and she adores her favorite cartoon The Noblets that she watches with her rooster Ethel and condensed milk. This is made even more remarkable not only as it's made using stop motion animation but also because of the characters and subject matter it tackles.
Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. The film has been immaculately designed, with many tiny details and features placed into the sets, all of which would have taken many countless hours to mould. I can relate to Max's character, as i work with people who have Asperges Syndrome. Mary was partly inspired by the director's own childhood and there's a little bit of Toni Collette's Muriel Heslop thrown in I suspect , and Max is also based on a real person he's been pen friends with but so far has never met in person. Will the two ever meet face to face? Post Office Customer voice 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.
I went into this film at the Berlinale with mixed feelings. Following the short animated film, Harvey Krumpet, director Adam Elliot has constructed his first full feature claymation picture, displaying as much skill as many of the major mainstream studios. From the way Mary and Max share their eating habits of chocolate hot dogs, to how Max describes his past jobs, including a street cleaner and a member of the Communist Party, the humour of the film remains truly original, bizarre and often very witty. Additional Voices voice Rest of cast listed alphabetically:. The lighting and colour scheme too are significant to the unique look of the film, ranging from highly saturated to almost entirely black and white, to reflect the self-depreciative and sometimes gloomy tone of the narrative.
What we get is something that feels a whole lot more personal than the higher profile animated films. And towards the end, the film, despite being well under two hours, begins to lose a bit of momentum as the characters wave in and out of their depleted lives. The way the film handles his Asperger's Syndrome just feels different to how you'd normally see such an issue handled on screen. Ravioli, and also loves The Noblets. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. It is quite sad, but with some really funny parts. After 5 years in the making it is definitely worth watching In Australia in 1976, a young girl named Mary voiced by Bethany Whitmore is a lonely child looking for a friend.
I saw this movie with work colleagues who also work with children with this disorder, and we were all curious to see how this disorder would be shown. It is a well thought out voice cast and while some of the minor characters verge on grotesque, there is still a real sweetness about this film that carries it. For adults wanting something different we have to wait for the likes of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Waltz With Bashir, Persepolis, or Aardman's films to turn up. Elliot excels in his ability write about the most normal things and then turn them on their heads, or degrade his miserable characters in the most hilarious way. There's a constant stream of humour ironic, black, childish , and I really enjoyed the small perfect touches on growing up in an Australian suburb in the 70's and 80's, and the depiction of grey New York, as it appears to the easily frightened Max.