Mary and Max: Film #37 of Film 365

Tuesday 24th May 2011

Director: Adam Elliot
Year: 2009
Stars: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries (voices)

I'd read some positive reviews of this when it was first released, and catching a glimpse of the first five minutes made me really want to watch the rest of the movie. The only thing putting me off was the presence of Hoffman - he's not generally one of my favourite actors.

Thankfully, I decided to watch the rest of the movie and it continued in the same way as the first five minutes. It really is a beautiful movie - both in terms of the animation and the incredibly bittersweet story. It's so sweet, and yet so sad.

Mary and Max follows a young girl in Australia (Mary) who starts to write to a middle-aged man in New York (Max). Using letters is a great way of really fleshing out both characters, and as the film develops so does the characters relationship to one another, through the letters they write. Combining two of my favourites things (writing letters and movies), it's really hard for me not to love this movie. I already want to watch it again.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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About Me

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I live in Bristol with my husband Dan (who I married in July 2007), my son Joe (born 2012) and daughter Jess (born 2015). I work at UWE (the University of the West of England) in Bristol as a Research and Open Access Librarian. I'm orginally from Exeter, so moving back to Bristol is a bit like coming home - especially as I studied for my undergraduate degree here (also at UWE). I love travelling and movies, although I get to do a lot less of both since the birth of our children. Although we have still managed to fit in holidays to the Isles of Scilly, Chamonix and a summer in California since Joe was born.