Mary & Max

Max: The reason I forgive you is because you are not perfect. You are imperfect. And so am I. All humans are imperfect.

Adam Elliot's Mary & Max is one of my favorite movies although it's difficult to explain why to someone who has not seen it. It's the story of a lonely Australian girl named Mary (voiced by Bethany Whitmore and later Toni Collette) who becomes pen pals with a middle aged New Yorker with Asperger syndrome named Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman). They live in bleak worlds of sepia and black and white. And while Mary is neglected by her parents and picked on at school, Max is misunderstood by everyone but possibly his therapist. But through their letters, they form an unlikely friendship that endures through their happiest and saddest moments and changes their understanding of the world and themselves.

Although this is a claymation movie, it is not meant for children. It's a black comedy that presents characters through their flaws rather than their strengths. But we love them for their flaws because it's their imperfections that make them human. Mary has mud colored eyes with a birthmark on her forehead and she desperately wants to be beautiful. Max's three goals in life are a complete collection of Noblet figurines, a lifetime supply of chocolate and a non-imaginary friend, but but he finds people confusing. Each struggles with their own insecurities and difficulties but each also unconditionally loves the other, warts and all.

The film is not flashy with larger-than-life characters or an outlandish plot. It's simply the stuff of which life is made, but it's made by someone who clearly loves people not in spite of their imperfections, but because of them. At some point in our lives, we have all known a Mary or a Max. Some of us have even been them. But at one point, Max gives Mary a candy heart that reads, "Love yourself first." We can find strength in friendship but in the end, we will still smell like licorice and old books or have mud colored eyes. We need to find not just the value in those around us but also the value in ourselves, even if it means looking at ourselves through someone else's eyes.

Mary & Max is a tribute to everyone who have never quite fit it. It pokes fun at our foibles without malice and shows the worth each person no matter how eccentric. I cannot recommend it highly enough.