Mary and Max

Mary and Max is a heartwarming and tragicomic stop-motion masterpiece, bringing to life an unusual friendship with black humour and touching honesty. Starring the peerless Philip Seymour Hoffman and the fabulous Toni Collette, this was the big break for Adam Elliot, the unsurpassed creator of the mesmerising Memoir of a Snail.

Eight-year-old Mary Dinkle grows up in a drab suburb of Melbourne, Australia and does not have an easy life. Her parents ignore her and at school she is bullied because of the maroon wine stain on her forehead. One day, out of sheer curiosity, she randomly picks a name from an American phone book and sends a letter to Max Horovitz, an obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's in chaotic New York. What begins as an innocent correspondence grows into an intense, decades-long friendship between two misfits who understand each other better than anyone else.

Directed by Adam Elliot
With Toni Collette (Voice), Eric Bana (Voice), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Voice)

Production country: Australia
English spoken, Dutch subtitled
animation, drama, 92 min, 2009
12+

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