Mary and Max is a touching portrayal of two lonely souls finding an unlikely connection, and it presents us with two of the year's most memorable film characters, who are brought to vivid life by Collette and Hoffman's outstanding vocal performances.
An offbeat and charming animation that is destined to become a cult classic.
Too long and wretched for children (Max is obese, receives electric shock therapy, and lives a life of neurotic misery) and yet surely too “kooky” for any sane adult (irritatingly camp words such as “smudgling”).
You have to admire the ambition, even if Elliot doesn't always seem certain if he's laughing with or at his creations.
Elliot is a talent eccentric enough to make Nick Park look like an office drone, and the serious sadness underpinning his vision only makes the humour work better.
It's a 20-year story that absorbs and beguiles, despite the ugly subject matter.
It is a sad, whimsical, uncomfortably comic film, touching rather than tragic, and overlong.
Elliot’s record of an unconventional friendship revels in grotesque detail and scatological humour, but yields unexpected depth and poignancy.
A beautifully observed, complex and melancholic portrait of friendship that niftily avoids the overly cute and sentimental traps into which films about these kinds of relationships often fall.
Try not to miss out on this weirdly wonderful and surprisingly touching film.
Coming on like a Mike Leigh film animated by Tim Burton, Mary and Max’s fearless tackling of adult issues might seem inappropriate for children, but only the most prudish could take offence.
It’s tender, witty, wise and moving.
Tom Sutcliffe: Is sentimentality an artistic crime?
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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