mary and Max.
The Story:
It is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people.
It's 1976 when we meet Mary Daisy Dinkle (Bethany Whitmore), a plump, unloved 8-year-old girl with thick glasses and a birthmark on her forehead that is "the color of poo."
Mary lives in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley, where she's neglected by her dull factory-worker dad and her chain-smoking, sherry-nipping mum. Longing for a friend besides her pet rooster, Mary tears a page at random from an American phone book and ends up scrawling a letter to Max Horovitz (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in the chaos of New York.
Max lives a very ordered life. He suffers from severe panic attacks when confronted by anything new, doesn’t understand verbal signals, has an imaginary friend named Mr. Ravioli, keeps a pet fish, has a fondness for chocolate and regularly sees his psychologist.
Mary includes a chocolate bar with her letter and Max writes back, telling Mary much of his life’s history, although his understanding of where babies comes from is just as confused as hers. As the years pass, their letter writing continues and their friendship grows.
When Mary is a young woman (Toni Collette) her father dies and leaves her some money which she uses to go to university to study diseases of the mind. She marries the Greek boy next door, Damian Popodopolous (Eric Bana). Mary wants to cure the world of mental illness and writes a book about Max and the unintended consequences of this book have a major affect on Mary’s life.
Starring Voices:
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries, Bethany Whitmore
Directed By:
Adam Elliott
Release:
2009
Watch the Trailer:
