“God gives us Relatives; thank God we can choose are friends”
Mary and Max is a story about friendship that travels across two continents and reaches each other’s hearts through pen and paper. Mary is a nine year old girl who lives in Australia with her mother and father. Her only wish was to have a friend where she can share her troubles and ideas with. She had a thought, how do babies come from in America? That question led her to picking a number in an American phone directory and decided to write to that person. The letter was delivered to Max, a 40-something year old New Yorker, a person who perceives himself as logical and literal. One letter and a chocolate led to another and the web of mail and friendship began.
What captured me about this movie the most is its honesty and humor. Honesty, because they as an animated film they were not afraid to deliver dialogues as honest as possible. For example, about religion and the people who does and doesn’t belong to one. Humor, because they could turn the saddest scenario of their life to a funny anecdote. How they portrayed Max’s anxiety attack to a very effective punch line. The beauty of it all is everything that looked wrong had a very reasonable right. How a piece of mail can raise the interest of the person who can relate to it and finally a friendship can bloom. It is how destiny plays a role as the joker and as the epiphany. It told about life’s irony and human being’s inconsideration seen through the eyes in a logical and literal manner.
This film would never appeal to a child, it is not colorful, the characters aren’t drawn to please the eyes and there are topics that are too early for a child to discover. But, I am certain that it will appeal to an audience who are ready to grasp the harsh and yet comical realities it delivers. The fact that it is animated makes it easier to process and the blow would be less depressing. Not to mention the music is not that bad, I love the music. Art wise I find it poignant and hilarious at the same time. Each scenes captured had a specific emotion assigned to it, I am not going to say this film is perfect because I am imperfect we are all imperfect and it is for us to embrace who we are warts and all.
