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

The 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

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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

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Adrían C

Es impresionante como en una película animada meten a un personaje con asperger y una niña solitaria y la convierten en una maravillosa obra maestra del stop motion. Ojalá haya una segunda película

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/06/25

Full Review

Oaklee D

A charming film that is heart warming and emotional. Adam Elliot knocks it out of the ball park yet again.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/25/25

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Miles C. S

This movie proves the brilliance of Adam Elliot (writer and director). Somehow Adam Elliott took the simple and mundane premise of an Australian girl becoming pen-pals with a New Yorker that has asperger syndrome and turned it into a movie I couldn’t stop watching. Movies like this restore my faith in cinema.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/25

Full Review

S R

I appreciated the dark / alternative claymation only so much before it got a little agenda commentary oriented. The overall feel didn't resonate either. I saw it since it was on the IMDb 250 list and I expect it was well received by cult classic followers for its bizarreness. I don't plan to see it again. RUS.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

12/30/24

Full Review

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

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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

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Mary and Max: Trailer 2

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Mary and Max: Trailer 1

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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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