Mary and Max is a story of an unlikely pen-pal friendship of two people from two different countries. Mary an 8 year old from Australia, is a curious child whose confidence was shaken by her alcoholic mother and the boys at her school who make fun of her looks. One day to answer her curiosity of finding out where babies come from, she randomly chose a name out the yellow pages. Leading her to Max Horowitz, a 44-year-old Jewish New Yorker, who is obese and is subject to anxiety attack when in contact with people. The random letter leads to 20 years of correspondence, surviving life’s average ups and downs.

The film is a clay motion based on director Adam Elliot’s life story, although certain events are exaggerated, he did have a pen friend in New York who he writes to for years. The voice cast includes Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bana. I found this story to be deeply moving, in a world where superficiality is taking the rise,  its amazing how friendship can be formed in the most unlikely places where even people are physical distant from each other.  The theme of the movie itself is somewhat dark, but it explores many social issues from friendship, obesity, agoraphobia to even religious differences.

Trailer of Max and Mary: