Mary and Max Reviews
Mary and Max review
Posted : 2 years, 1 month ago on 16 March 2022 04:44O filme é elaborado e desenvolvido ao redor dos monólogos das cartas trocadas entre Mary e Max. Mary é uma menina solitária que tem pais ausentes e irresponsáveis. Seu pai trabalha o dia inteiro em uma fábrica de chá, já sua mãe é uma alcóolatra viciada em cigarros e programas de TV. Aqui o filme já nos introduz uma classe de mensagem sobre o abandono, sobre a falta de empatia dos pais de Mary, negligenciando sua criação tornando-a cheia de problemas de socialização e digamos até mentais. Mostrando como a negligência e a falta de amor podem afetar negativamente uma pessoa, é grotesco como Mary é constantemente humilhada e tratada mau no filme como se os diretores estivessem contra a personagem. É uma parte bastante incômoda do filme ainda mais levando em conta que Mary é uma criança. É estranho que esse filme seja classificado como comédia quando a maioria dos acontecimentos não são engraçados mas trágicos e comoventes.
Max por outro lado é representado com problemas de ordem mental, sendo um homem obeso e isolado socialmente devido a sua condição psiquiátrica. Sendo visto de forma negativa pela sociedade pelo seu jeito "literal e lógico" de ver as coisas como ele mesmo diz. Em termos de personagem está muito bem caracterizado, os roteiristas fizeram um excelente trabalho detalhando não só o personagem em si mas seu dia a dia e sobre como pensa. Sendo esse um dos aspectos mais interessantes já que abordam temas mundanos de forma que justifica e nos dá uma melhor compreensão da mente confusa do protagonista. Nos dando também uma valiosa mensagem sobre o abandono e sobre como a empatia nos torna mais humanos. Uma bonita mensagem sobre cuidar dos incapacitados, finalizando o filme de forma catártica e satisfatória com Max entendendo que as pessoas tem erros e que na vida devemos lidar com esses problemas. Mensagem que reflete diretamente em Mary finalizando o filme.
Em conclusão Mary and Max é um bom filme? Sim! sem dúvidas não é perfeito, pela pouca duração e alguns momentos grotescos que estão para punir os personagens sem razão alguma. Ainda sim carrega consigo bons valores de produção, a animação stop motion é, apesar de rara e grotesca, criativa e bem feita com personagens cartonizados acompanhados de uma trilha sonora de violino que complementa a atmosfera atípica desse filme. E o mais importante óbvio, carrega consigo uma mensagem sobre empatia e estudo de personagem único, retratando um personagem com uma doença mental que não é um serial killer ou um super gênio, mas sim abordando os problemas reais que implica essa condição. Gosto da mensagem e sinceramente há pouco o que criticar então darei a honrosa nota de 8/10.
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A good movie
Posted : 8 years, 3 months ago on 24 December 2015 08:23Since I kept hearing some really impressive things about this movie (for example, it has been on the IMDb top 250 for a while already), I was really eager to check this flick and I had some rather high expectations. Well, to be be honest, even though I found many things to admire, I can't say it really blew me away though. I mean, it is definitely a gorgeous stop motion animated feature, probably one of the very best I have ever seen, at least in this area. The main issue I had is that even though the story and the characters involved were decent, they never became really more than that, at least, for me. I mean, at some points, I thought that it was finally going towards the right direction but, eventually, it never happened, that magical moment when you are swept away by a great tale. The strange thing is that it was about Asperger syndrome, a form of autism and Autism is a very dear subject to me. Still, while the makers handled the subject very well, it never really grabbed me. To conclude, even though I didn't completely connect with it, it was still a very good feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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Mary and Max
Posted : 8 years, 8 months ago on 28 July 2015 03:592009 was a banner year for animation, not only did we see the release of these two films, but even lesser efforts like 9, commendable ones like The Princess and the Frog, and neo-classics like Coraline, Ponyo, and Fantastic Mr. Fox all saw release. Each of those films obtained some measure of respect and an audience, yet Mary and Max was handled poorly. Pity, while the target audience may be hard to determine, this film deserved a better rollout than to just be dropped on Video-on-Demand with little fanfare.
The story concerns the decades-long friendship between Mary, a young Australian girl with a rough home life, and Max, a middle-aged mentally ill New Yorker. They communicate through letters, with Max frequently oversharing adult situations and themes that Mary would have no clue how to process or what they meant. Mary, meanwhile, shares stories of an alcoholic mother, absentee father, and isolated childhood. Individually, their lives are sad and damaged, but when brought together they find some measure of happiness and understanding between them.
The film is unconcerned with traditional narrative, preferring to craft a series of vignettes populated by eccentrics, and colored in muted tones with an occasional splash of crimson. Sight-gags and strange choices in character design make this world feel welcoming at first glance, until one realizes just how depraved and twisted everything is swirling around these two optimists. The emotional heft of the film ultimately prevails as hopeful, despite numerous accidental deaths and suicide attempts along the way. These two characters share a common thread of innocence, of hopefulness, that the world cannot extinguish no matter how hard it tries. The climatic revelation is a touching, even heartbreakingly tender portrait of what a connection between two people can inspire. The comfort we find in this final passage is a hard-won victory against the anguish of so much that transpired before it.
Mary and Max may not be a movie for everyone, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t absolutely adore it. Here was a movie that tackled difficult, often tricky subject matter head-on with humanity, wicked humor, and a frankness that is refreshing. Many animated films have touched me deeply, but I don’t know of another one that did the feat quite as sublimely as this one did.
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Worth a watch (if not the greatest film ever)
Posted : 9 years, 1 month ago on 20 February 2015 11:49The film is clay-animated; through both narration and occasional dialogue, it shows us the ups and downs of Mary's and Max's individual lives as well as their friendship. Despite being animated, the movie isn't for young children, as there are some very dark themes; that said, 'Mary and Max' bills itself as a comedy and there are indeed many clever and humorous moments throughout the film (however, this one is definitely a "black" comedy).
The film moves at a fast pace, and I enjoyed the narration and the score. I also liked seeing how these two lonely, outcast characters were able to make a connection through "snail mail". I preferred Mary's character to Max's -- but it was interesting to see *both* of their lives, although the constant "down" moments of each character grew to be a bit much.
I can't pinpoint exactly what didn't work for me in this movie; there was no major issue, just lots of little things here and there. Also, I kind of wish it had ended differently.
Still, 'Mary and Max' isn't a bad movie by any means. (I doubt that I'll watch it again, but I didn't consider it a waste of time, either.) I could see how some viewers might really get something out of it; but, for me, it was just slightly better than okay. (5.5/10)
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Mary and Max review
Posted : 11 years, 10 months ago on 13 June 2012 12:000 comments, Reply to this entry
Human Imperfection
Posted : 12 years, 1 month ago on 20 February 2012 07:49A (male) chicken named Ethel is young Mary's only friend, while Max lives with his pets (including an ever-dying line of fish) in a cheap apartment. Max doesn't know it but he has Asperger's, a neurological, Autism-like condition which impairs social interaction. It is quite a coincidence that Max and Mary meet.
She picks his name from a phone book, and decides to ask him where babies come from in America (she has been informed by her deceased grandad that Australians find them in beer glasses. Another name, and she could have picked a pedophile, who would have been very glad to hear from her, but for different reasons (no, this is not a story about pedophilia.)
Max answers, in his own eccentric (and slightly unrealistic) way, and an unusual friendship begins, despite interference from Mary's mother (who, frankly, has reasonable motive to be suspicious of her child strange new pen pal.) This all leads to a conclusion that made me shed a tear, for the first time in an animated movie since some of Pixar's new releases.
"Mary & Max"'s world is populated by strange claymation characters- a Greek stutterer, an agoraphobic amputee, and a blind widow- who are even stranger than they sound. The animation is detailed, gratuitously weird, and frankly, a little hard to take, but the story makes up for it.
The bittersweetness of the film makes it hard not to cry a little, think a little, and lament for the loneliness that hounds some people throughout their lives. Philip Seymour Hoffman does not sound like Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max and Toni Collette is good as the adult Mary. "Mary & Max" is not without humor and definitely worth a watch.
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Underrated treasure of inspiration and tragedy.
Posted : 13 years, 4 months ago on 9 December 2010 02:41I was actually really surprised at how emotional it really was. I almost creased in tears when the film ended which doesn't really happen to me but watching it was a massive inspiration to me seeing as I am a strong follower of autism and Asperger's Syndrome seeing as I have a few friends and relatives who suffer from it. The animation was just spectacular! It was quite similar to Henry Selick/Tim Burton-like stop-motion (Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Corpse Bride merged with Aardman and Nick Park (Wallace And Gromit feature film and the 4 shorts, Chicken Run, Creature Comforts).
In the mid 1970's, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. He's Max Horowitz, living alone in New York, overweight, subject to anxiety attacks. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. Mary falls in love with a neighbour, saves money to have a birthmark removed and deals with loss. Max has a friendship with a neighbour, tries to control his weight, and finally gets the dream job. Will the two ever meet face to face?
There was almost no involvement of the United States, United Kingdom or any other studio from another country. Plus, pretty much the entire cast are Australian (apart from Phillip Seymour Hoffman) so it was pretty much an all-Australian film. It was brilliant because all of the actors and creators within this film have merged together and created something that perhaps does challenge against other animation studios (even Pixar). Phillip Seymour Hoffman's voice acting as Max was pretty awesome. I felt the drama of the character really well and despite that it was mostly a narrated film, the characters were so strong it was just too good to be true. I think that the main message of the film is that you can find soul mates from all over the world and no matter how far one lives, that person can still change one's life around; whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
The direction from Adam Elliot was incredible! I haven't seen very many Australian films but I have to admit that this is by far the best one I have seen from there. I would say that Mary And Max has some similarities with other animated films like A Scanner Darkly, Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis in terms of theme and image backgrounds but in terms of dialogue, message and characters, it is something totally different than any film that has been released. I was deeply admired how unique the clay-animated background New York City looked like especially the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center twin towers before their collapse. The script was just awesome! Mary And Max is, like most clay-animated films, a film that is actually out of somebody's (or a group of people's) head(s), not based on a novel and to write a script like that without the support of a book, I really admire.
Overall, Mary And Max is an absolutely outstanding film that I adored from the start to the end. I would say it is the most underrated film of all time and when it is released on blu-ray, I will be at the store to buy it within like an hour! It is the first film that I have seen that is about someone with Asperger's Syndrome so that's another reason why I absolutely love it so if you have a friend or relative who suffers from Autism or Asperger's Syndrome then you should check it out! Also, I must say that I think Nick Park reluctantly has an opponent who is good enough to challenge him. One of the best films of 2009 and maybe even one of the best animated films that I think I have watched in a very long time. The whole film in a nutshell: MASTERPIECE!
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Mary and Max review
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 10 October 2010 06:230 comments, Reply to this entry
Adam Elliot e suas síndromes.
Posted : 13 years, 9 months ago on 21 July 2010 01:12Mary é uma menina australiana de 8 anos de idade, solitária, com uma marca de nascença na testa, negligenciada pela mãe alcoólatra e o pai viciado em seu hobby. Certa vez, ela acabou por sortear um nome num livro dos correios e escreveu para um endereço em Nova Iorque para perguntar se os bebês na América também surgem no fundo de canecas de cerveja como sua mãe contou. Em outro continente, o destinatário Max de 40 anos tem em comum com sua nova amiga de correspondência a solidão e a admiração pelo desenho televisivo The Noblits e chocolate.
Na troca de cartas, Mary confidencia detalhes de sua rotina como o bullying que sofre na escola e o conforto que encontra em uma lata de leite condensado enquanto Max revela seus três objetivos na vida: conseguir a coleção completa de bonecos dos Noblits, ter uma fonte de chocolate e encontrar um amigo.
A sombria cenografia compõe o teor melancólico do conteúdo das cartas, das fatalidades, neuroses, feridas, frustrações e desencantos que acompanham os anos seguintes até que a jovem Mary possa dividir com seu amigo um breve momento de sucesso com seu casamento e a publicação de um livro sobre a condição neurológica da qual Max é acometido, a síndrome de Asperger (o protagonista de seu Harvie Krumpet também possuía um transtorno psiquiátrico que moldaria sua vida, no caso síndrome de Tourette), porém as histórias de vida antes independentemente descritas tornaram-se diretamente afetadas mutuamente pela excêntrica amizade de Mary e Max.
Um elemento de repetição e morbidez emanam na segunda parte da animação, acompanhados de elementos mais pesados como ansiedade, suicídio, alcoolismo, morte e abandono e já não há lugar para um peculiar humor que permeava as dificuldades de ambos inicialmente, ainda assim “Mary e Max: Uma amizade Diferente” consegue atingir uma sinceridade ímpar e a dublagem pujante dos atores Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana e a narraçao do comediante australiano Barry Humphries resultam numa obra muito além de um simples stop-motion com belíssima direção de arte, há vida e feridas reais . Escolhido para a noite de abertura de Sundance 2009 é citado ser baseado em fatos reais, e numa entrevista Adam Elliot afirmou ter se inspirado em seu amigo ‘de correspondência’ novaiorquino. Sinistro.
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Sublime film of warmth, humour and power
Posted : 14 years, 2 months ago on 29 January 2010 09:28
In this cinematic era of computer animation, the art of claymation (for which hand-moulded figurines are painstakingly photographed one frame at a time) is slowly dissolving. Aardman Studios (the guys behind Wallace and Gromit) seem to be the only ones who still possess the patience required to continue the practise into the 21st Century. It's therefore refreshing to witness the Australian film Mary and Max (the feature film debut of Adam Elliot, who won an Oscar for his short film Harvie Krumpet), which was created using this claymation method to tell a bizarre, sweet and mature story. Tremendously inventive, clever, hilarious and wise, Mary and Max is a sublime movie of warmth and compassion about life's dissonances. The animation is superb, the characters are endearing, the humour is abundant, and it honestly and thoroughly explores several topical themes. If American Beauty director Sam Mendes collaborated with Aardman Animations, the product would be something like Mary and Max.
Based partly on Elliot's own life experiences, Mary and Max is a feature about two people leading a mundane existence on the fringe of society; finding solace only in their heartfelt pen-pal letters to each other. Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Bethany Whitmore and Toni Collette) is a chubby, friendless 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne with her neglectful parents. One day, Mary randomly selects a name from the Manhattan phone book and writes a letter to him. She chooses Max Horovitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman); a severely obese 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. It turns out they have a lot in common - beyond loneliness and a complete lack of friends, they share a love of chocolate and a TV show called The Noblets. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, with their friendship surviving more than the average diet of life's ups and downs.
There's plenty of playful narration (almost constant) courtesy of Aussie legend Barry Humphries which gives the film the feel of a children's tale, but Mary and Max is not for kids. The movie doesn't shy away from covering an array of mature, confronting issues, such as depression, sexuality, suicide, obesity and mental illness. Unlike most mainstream movies in which friendship saves the day and everybody is happy, Mary and Max is unmistakably dark - both physically dark, and dark in its depiction of reality. Max is never able to lose weight, and Mary can never escape the shadow of her parents. Mary eternally resides in her brown-tinged Melbourne suburb, while Max's New York City is depicted as a grey metropolis whose only bright colours are those that come from Mary (a red pompom, for instance). The predominantly colourless and ominous cityscape of NYC is clearly symbolic of Max's melancholy, mental distress and isolation. The ending in particular underlines the film's dark disposition; showing that in real life there may be happy middles, but happy endings are almost non-existent. But despite this, Mary and Max is by no means a highly depressing venture; it's a cinematic delight, with its downbeat content matched by constant laughs, a super-abundance of heart, and several deeply moving moments. Somehow, all of this is squeezed into an 85-minute timeframe, which at times feels longer due narrative simplicity and the occasional pacing issues. This is probably to be expected, however, as Elliot has only previously worked on shorts.
Even though a mere claymation short could take up to a year to create, old-school animators such as Adam Elliot and his team display a palpable affection for this approach. Mary and Max spent a total of five years in the making, with six dedicated animation teams working under Elliot's direction in a converted factory in Melbourne, and each team creating an average of 4 seconds of footage per day. A huge kudos to Adam Elliot and his claymation team for creating such a vivid, picturesque world here, with the grim landscape evoking a film-noir feel. Every one of the characters, created from plasticine, is intricately and lovingly detailed. The detail does generate the illusion that we're watching a computer-animated movie, yet the painstaking claymation process affords a look, feel and soul that has yet to be replicated through computers. One must have patience and passion to undertake a stop-motion feature of such scale, and these are two qualities Adam Elliot infinitely exerts.
Another tremendous pleasure of Mary and Max is the voice cast; a cornucopia of vocal talent from across the globe. Without a doubt, Philip Seymour Hoffman has proved one of the most versatile actors of recent years with his exceptional vocal work (Capote, anyone?), and he's virtually unrecognisable here. This is, of course, the true essence of voice acting - a viewer should not be given the chance to focus on the actor providing the voice, but instead the character they are voicing. Meanwhile Bethany Whitmore is effortlessly endearing as the young Mary, and Toni Collette is pitch-perfect as Mary in her later years.
Through an immense artistry as well as an evident maturity emanated by the makers, Mary and Max affirmatively and genuinely answers a potent question: is there someone for everyone? In adulthood, we understand that we're born into our families but choose our friends, and the 20-year friendship between these two vastly different yet curiously similar individuals proves the theory. Adam Elliot's ambitious first feature-length claymation movie is an absolute delight, merging witty laughs with heartfelt emotion to generate this genuinely moving slice of animation. Mary and Max is, at least for this reviewer's money, the best animated motion picture of 2009 (yes, better than Up). After the terrific Harvie Krumpet and now this, it's clear Elliot is a highly talented filmmaker one should keep an eye on in future years.
9.1/10
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