Film Review: Mary and Max (2009)

The biggest problem with the list of the best Oscar nominees for Animated Feature that I published almost three weeks ago is that it doesn't account for the countless animated features that have been wrongfully snubbed across the year. That includes this unconventional little stop-motion flick that flew right over most peoples' heads, and they didn't even notice. Mary and Max is an odd animated flick about Mary, a sad young girl who has no friends at all and is generally confused about the world, so she writes to an anonymous stranger in New York who turns out to be Max. He's an overweight, autistic old man with a cynical outlook on life to counteract Mary's hopeful ambition.

Of course it doesn't go the average way that you'd expect it would, because both these characters are so beset on all sides by the harsh cruelty of life. Mary has an unfortunate birth splotch that looks like poo, her parents are the most cynical pair of shut-ins you could imagine, and she is constantly tormented by bullies at her school. Max doesn't understand the way human beings think, he has panic attacks when faced with stressful situations, and he also has no real friends. The two are a perfect friends for each other, and as they pass across harsh truthful anecdotes about their lives, they form a bond. Unfortunately, their relationship is as melancholic and unpredictable as their lives.

This isn't approached in the conventional fashion, with most of the story being told through narration through "The Narrator" and between Mary and Max's letters to each other. Even less conventional is the dark sense of humor this film carries along with it. It perfectly translates the way we try to understand things as a child, which is in the most literal fashion. Mix in themes such as sexuality, mental illness, and of course where babies come from, and you've got one of the most uniquely well-written animated films of all time. Of course the film would fall on dead ears if it weren't for the fantastic understated voice work by Toni Collette and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Mary and Max respectively.

Besides the emotional nature of all these proceedings, I just found this film so frighteningly familiar and relatable in the same way Black Swan. The way that both Mary and Max make sense of the world is so similar to ways that anybody makes sense of the the world. It may seem like I don't have much to say about this film, but it's such a difficult film to encapsulate. It's so beautifully and poignantly animated with an artistic craft beyond most filmmakers. It's terrible that I never came to notice this film until now, and I encourage everyone to seek out and enjoy this masterpiece of the highest degree.

A