Sundance Review: ‘Mary and Max’

Opening night of Sundance, and my very first screening before the long haul. ‘Mary and Max’ is a claymation movie very much in the vein of ‘Wallace and Gromit’. However dont be fooled by the fact that it seems like you could take your kids to it, it is very much the opposite case.

The movie itself has a great story but I have a hard time really enjoying a movie that is nothing but clay characters, much like watching a 2d cartoon. ‘Mary and Max’ is about two overweight people, Mary who lives in Australia and is 8, and Max who is a 40 year old New Yorker. Mary decides to find someone in America to become pen pals with and finds Max in a US phone book. She writes to him and they develop a relationship that lasts for years. I don’t want to go to much into the story and give anything away. However before going into it realize that it deals with some very adult themes at times and in the course of its run has dealt with depression, suicide, death, loss, obesity, sex, and a few other things that you wouldn’t want your 10 year old to see.

All in all the movie was enjoyable and you should definitely check it out, but its not something that I am going to buy or probably even re-watch.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5