Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Mary and Max

Play trailer 2:03 Poster for Mary and Max 2009 1h 32m Drama Comedy Animation Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
96% Tomatometer 67 Reviews 92% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
A lonely Australian girl (Toni Collette) and an elderly Jewish man (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in New York develop an unlikely friendship through letters.

Where to Watch

Mary and Max

Mary and Max

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Mary and Max is a lovingly crafted, startlingly inventive piece of animation whose technical craft is equaled by its emotional resonance.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (67) Critics Reviews
Kate Muir Times (UK) This clay animation feels as if it was written by the early Woody Allen. Actually the genius behind it is Adam Elliot, who wrote, designed and directed this eccentric, wryly funny story. Rated: 4/5 Jun 16, 2014 Full Review Mark Fisher Sight & Sound Ultimately, Mary and Max is about correspondence and lack of correspondence, about how our images and fantasies about others fail to match up to what they are like, and about the constitutive gaps and misfirings in any communicational practice. Jun 18, 2012 Full Review John Walsh Independent (UK) It's a 20-year story that absorbs and beguiles, despite the ugly subject matter. Rated: 4/5 Oct 22, 2010 Full Review David Griffiths Subculture Entertainment Films as brilliant as ‘Mary And Max’ don’t come along very often. If I had to grade it out of ten I would give it one hundred. Rated: 5/5 Oct 29, 2024 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review The ugly duckling characters share thoughts of anxiety, addiction, depression, and feelings of severe displacement within the world. This is dark and very heavy, but very Harold and Maude stuff. Rated: 3.5/4 Aug 30, 2023 Full Review Guillem Martinez Oya Cinematismo A beautiful story of friendship, forgiveness, love, and humanity although the differences. A humanistic story. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 4/5 Mar 6, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1000+) audience reviews
Valerie K Very goofy yet touching movie. I however wouldn’t recommend it to children. Some of the content is inappropriate for little ones Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 10/29/24 Full Review Audience Member One of my favourite movies, a superb story with unexpectedly touching animation and a great soundtrack Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/19/24 Full Review Faiz D A creative, sad, emotional and poignant film with a deeply moving ending. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/29/24 Full Review Dave S A heavy dose of existential angst is probably the last thing you’d expect when settling in for an exercise in Claymation, but that’s exactly what you’re going to get with Mary and Max…and, surprisingly, that’s not a bad thing. Mary is a young girl from Australia, tormented by her classmates, ignored by her father, and disillusioned by her troubled mother. Max is a middle-aged New Yorker who suffers from Asperger Syndrome, living a life of solitude in his squalid apartment. When the two start an unlikely pen pal relationship, they begin to find meaning in their otherwise meaningless lives. The characters are well-defined, the stop motion animation is as good as it gets, the writing is insightful, and the voice work of Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman is subdued and impactful throughout. While it’s not exactly uplifting, it leans towards inspirational, but never in a soppy way, and is well worth checking out. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 05/23/24 Full Review Logan D A lonely adolescent girl reaches out to a random person in New York and finds Max, a Jewish atheist, and become pen pals. A remarkably human story of love, life, and friendship. I had no idea that was Hoffman but so happy to enjoy one more performance by the late actor. It's a bleak tale populate with the flavor of reality. Very heavy for an animated film. Highly recommended. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 04/19/24 Full Review Kyle M Stop-motion Claymation are considerably jewel gems with dedicated patience in the painstaking craft, boosting the storyteller's compelling directorial vision as realized magnum opus. This unique caricature-designed dramedy provides generally charming flair over its societal satire with amusing observations balanced with harsh reality and heartened by the well-cast performances, even if mildly accepted whilst discomforted over its occasional bleakness and uncanny weirdness. (B+) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/11/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Mary and Max

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Anomalisa 92% 71% Anomalisa Watchlist TRAILER for Anomalisa My Life as a Zucchini 99% 89% My Life as a Zucchini Watchlist The Oranges 31% 32% The Oranges Watchlist The Romantics 14% 21% The Romantics Watchlist The Private Lives of Pippa Lee 69% 50% The Private Lives of Pippa Lee Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A lonely Australian girl (Toni Collette) and an elderly Jewish man (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in New York develop an unlikely friendship through letters.
Director
Adam Elliot
Producer
Melanie Coombs
Screenwriter
Adam Elliot
Production Co
Melodrama Pictures
Genre
Drama, Comedy, Animation
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 27, 2016
Runtime
1h 32m
Most Popular at Home Now