"Mary and Max" opens in Australia to good reviews

The film "Mary and Max" officially opens April 9 in Australia. A review from Fiona Sewell for ABC-TV in Australia:

Sometimes the most unlikely friendships are the ones that sustain us and so it is with Mary and Max.

Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced as a child by Bethany Whitmore and as an adult by Toni Collette), is a lonely nine-year-old living in Melbourne who loves chocolate, a cartoon called The Noblettes. Mary has no friends.

Max Jerry Horovitz (voiced by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese Jewish New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome who loves chocolate, The Noblettes and also has no friends.

By a strange twist of fate, Mary chooses Max's name from the phone book and decides to write him a letter, and so begins a 20 year pen pal friendship.

Mary's letter at first throws Max's ordered life into an anxiety filled state.

For him, the world is a strange and confusing place.

Their letters fly thick and fast as they face the trials and tribulations of life.

Mary asking questions, Max trying the answer them - it's delightful.

Narrated by Barry Humphries, the film explores many themes; life, death, loneliness, and mental illness.

Tough stuff for characters that look like misshapen blobs of plasticine.

This is the first feature of Australian writer director Adam Elliot.

He's the man who brought us the delightful Harvie Krumpet and won himself an Oscar for best short film.

The story is based on a real life pen pal relationship that he has with a New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.

The type of films he makes are painstaking.

It's called Claymation or stop motion filming, and it takes forever to make a movie, at the rate of just a few seconds a day.

But Mary and Max is worth the wait.

It's witty, clever, beautiful and ultimately incredibly moving.

I'll admit to a few tears.

You really care about Mary and Max and their tumultuous and complicated friendship over 20 years.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette and also Eric Bana as Mary's love interest Damien, perfectly voice their clay characters.

Adam Elliot is a unique voice in Australian film making and it's a voice worth listening to.