Mary and max box office

Film review: Mary and Max

Australia 2008

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

Melbourne and New York, 1976. Looking for a friend, lonely child Mary Daisy Dinkle chooses Max Jerry Horovitz’s name at random from a New York telephone directory.

She writes him a letter, telling of her difficulties with her parents and with bullying. Horovitz is confused but replies to her, and the two form a friendship based in part on a shared love of an animated television show and chocolate. We subsequently learn that Horovitz has Asperger’s syndrome, and Mary’s letters often prompt explosive and uncontrollable emotions in him, which at their worst lead to him being committed to a psychiatric institution.

Mary, grown up, marries her neighbour and writes a study of Max’s condition for her university dissertation, which is later turned into a book.

She excitedly plans to travel to New York to meet Max. Just as she is about to lea