Mary and Max

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2:03

Mary and Max

2009

1h 32m

Drama

Comedy

Animation

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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.

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Critics Consensus

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Anna V

The style, the story, the soundtrack are all utterly superb. This is for sure one of the most touching and wholesome movies I have ever seen.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/09/24

Full Review

Mary M

such a heartwarming film. wish it was more viewed.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/30/24

Full Review

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

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Adam Elliot

Director

Toni Collette

Mary Daisy Dinkle

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Max Jerry Horovitz

Eric Bana

Damien

Barry Humphries

Narrator

Bethany Whitmore

Young Mary

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Mary and Max: Trailer 2

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Mary and Max: Trailer 1

2:19

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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

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