Film Review - Mary and Max (2009)

Fig 1. Mary and Max (2009)

Mary and Max is an indie/drama film about an overseas friendship between two characters with very different lives. An eight-year-old girl from Melbourne named Mary Dinkle, who is picked on for having a birthmark on her forehead, and Max Horovitz; a 44-year-old overweight Jewish man with Asperger’s syndrome. The film shows the two characters friendship develop through the letters they write to each other over the span of 20 years. The film explores themes of friendship, mental health, and autism, but also covers some dark and mature themes such as; anxiety, sexual differences, alcoholism, religious differences, past trauma, agoraphobia, obesity, neglect, bullying, and suicide. The film also has its comedic moments, which when mixed with the dark themes, creates some morbidly funny situations.

The film was made using claymation/stop motion animation. It has a more handmade quality and gives the characters movements a more quirky style, which in this case supports the dark and sometimes off-putting themes. With stop motion, and especially with Mary and Max, the characters look more puppet-like, rather than people, which can be quite unsettling when paired with dark themes, but in a way that fascinates the audience, rather than putting them off.

The story of Mary and Max could definitely have been portrayed through live action rather than animation, however, it is the animation itself paired with the story that really makes the narrative work. There are some things that cannot be captured by live action films. For example, each character is designed so uniquely and are so over exaggerated that you can tell exactly what the characters are like without even hearing them speak, the film also has a very interesting use of colour.  When showing Mount Waverly; the place where Mary lives, the only colours used are sepia tones, except for the Mary’s Mother’s red lipstick, and later on, Mary’s red lipstick and red shoes. The choice of these colours aids the melancholy feeling of the film. When showing New York; the city that Max lives in, it is only shown in black and white which makes Mount Waverley suddenly look rather simple and peaceful compared to the chaotic, polluted city. The abstract characters and quirky animation mixed with the dull colour palettes make the film slightly difficult to watch, especially with the challenging themes it shows, however, there is a good balance of rather blunt humour and darker moments. If the narrative was told using live action, the story may have felt a little too drawn out, and also dulled downed some dramatic scenes such as the scene where Mary almost commits suicide where pictures of her friends and family are seen floating around her. If this was done using live action it wouldn’t look as interesting, and the characters would lose a lot of their creepy charms.

Fig 2. Mary and Max (2009)

The film was directed and written by Adam Elliot, an independent Australian stop-motion animation writer, director and producer based in Melbourne, Australia. Adam refers to a lot of his work as “Clayography” which means clay animated biographies. He views every character and prop and set as a tangible object, so that the audience can see that very little detail has been hand crafted. He decided to create Mary and Max because he always focused on one character in his previous short films, and thought it was time to explore multiple characters. The film became a feature length film unintentionally during the writing process as Elliot doesn’t usually plan how long the film will be. Adam also designed just over 200 characters himself, he also had to create a style bible to give to the sculptors so that they could accurately portray his style. Elliot’s stories focus on characters that are seen as outsiders or marginalized ed. He wants to educate the audience on issues that not everyone would know about, or should tease someone for. He wants the audience to be able to empathize with his characters.

The reception of Mary and Max was very positive. It received a 95% (57 of 60) of the critics at a film review aggregator rotten tomatoes rate Mary and Max fresh, with eleven of the fourteen top critic reviews agreeing. It grossed $1,444,617 at the Australian box office and although it received no general theatrical release in the United States, it was shown at several American film festivals and was briefly shown in the Laemmle Theatre in Los Angeles. The film was released in France and Germany and received significant box office success. It also won many awards such as; Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best Director in a Feature Film at the Australian Director Guild, Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, as well as being nominated for 9 other awards.

Bibliography:

Hailey, J. s.d. Mary and Max (2009) At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/ (Accessed on 17.01.19)

Mary and Max, Official Trailer [online] AMBI Distribution (2014) 2:03 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2GbYu010a0&feature=youtu.be

(Accessed on 17.01.19)

Mary and Max: The Exhibition - interview with Adam Elliot [online] Pres. Adam Elliot. ACMI (2015) 15 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUVzPaBANkw&feature=youtu.be (Accessed on 17.01.19)

Pulver, A. (2010) Mary and Max Review. At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/mary-and-max-review (Accessed on 17.01.19)

Rotten Tomatoes. S.d. Mary and Max (2009) At: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1209767_mary_and_max (Accessed on 17.01.19)

Images:

Figure 1. Mary and Max. (2009) From: Mary and Max. Directed by Adam Elliot [Poster] Australia: Gaumont. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/mediaviewer/rm1312167936  (Accessed on 17.01.19)

Figure 2. Mary and Max. (2009) From: Mary and Max. Directed by Adam Elliot [Film still] Australia: Gaumont. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/mediaviewer/rm3229040640 (Accessed on 17.01.19)