Mary and Max (2009)

A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

Director:

Adam Elliot

Writer:

Adam Elliot

Stars:

Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries

Top 250 #183 | 5 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Toni Collette	...	Mary Daisy Dinkle (voice)
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Max Jerry Horovitz (voice)
Barry Humphries	...	Narrator (voice)
Eric Bana	...	Damien (voice)
Bethany Whitmore	...	Young Mary (voice)
Renée Geyer	...	Vera (voice)
Ian 'Molly' Meldrum	...	Homeless Man (voice)
John Flaus	...	(voice)
Julie Forsyth	...	(voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Christopher Massey	...	Additional Voice
Shaun Patten	...	Additional Voice
Carolyn Shakespeare-Allen	...	Additional Voice
Leanne Smith	...	Additional Voice

Storyline

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, living alone in New York, overweight, subject to anxiety attacks. 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?

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Plot Keywords:

friendship | chocolate | neighbor | birthmark | alcoholic mother | 

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Taglines:

Two unlikely people. Two different worlds come together in a story about a most unusual friendship.

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [de]

Country:

Australia

Language:

English Yiddish

Release Date:

9 April 2009 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Mary & Max

Filming Locations:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 8,240,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Melodrama Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All of the water scenes were created with lubricant.

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Goofs

When Max is in the hospital, the sign over his bed says "Nil By Mouth," a medical instruction which, while routine in Commonwealth nations, is unknown in the US.

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Quotes

Narrator: Max hoped Mary would write again. He'd always wanted a friend. A friend that wasn't invisible, a pet or rubber figurine.

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Crazy Credits

Before the end credits the next quote appears: "God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends" by Ethel Watts Mumford.

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Connections

References Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

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Soundtracks

"Prelude and Yodel"
Composed by Simon Jeffes
Performed by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra

User Reviews

Unforgettable and Heartbreaking Bleak Tale of Friendship and Loneliness

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 has absolutely no friends and is teased by her schoolmate Benny Clifford. 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. Meanwhile, in New York, the lonely forty-four year-old Max Jerry Horowitz has Asperge Syndrome and trouble to sleep and is obese since he eats chocolate hot-dogs to compensate his anxiety. He frequently goes to the Overeaters Anonymous Meeting. Max does not have any friend, only the invisible Mr. Ravioli, and also loves The Noblets. His life goals are to have a friend, Noblets and chocolate. One day, Mary picks Max address out of an American phone-book and she decides to write to him to ask from where babies come in America. Along their lives, they become pen pals and their unusual friendship oscillates due to the anxiety attacks of the unstable Max.

"Mary and Max" is an unforgettable and heartbreaking bleak tale of friendship and loneliness. 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. The excellent animation follows the dark style of Tim Burton and the screenplay is a profound insight in human behavior. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Mary and Max – Uma Amizade Diferente" ("Mary and Max – A Different Friendship")