---
title: "Mary and Max"
year: 2009
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/mary-and-max"
fi1m_id: "mary-and-max"
imdb_id: "tt0978762"
tmdb_id: 24238
wikidata_id: "Q1128756"
fi1m_score: 80
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-15"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:10.196568+00:00"
region: "CL"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Mary and Max (2009)

Directed by Adam Elliot · 1h 32m · Animation, Comedy, Drama

## Identity

Mary and Max

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/mary-and-max
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** mary-and-max
- **IMDb ID:** tt0978762
- **TMDB ID:** 24238
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1128756
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/24238, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1128756

**Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 74 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two clay pen pals made us feel ashamed of how long we take to answer a letter

> Adam Elliot’s *Mary and Max* is a funny, melancholy animation that takes lonely people seriously without requiring them to become agreeable. We recommend it warmly, though its accumulation of misfortunes sometimes wears down the pleasure of their company.

## Synopsis

Mary, a lonely girl in Australia, begins a correspondence with a man in New York who has Asperger’s syndrome. Their letters give two people who struggle with company a way to ask questions, explain themselves and look for friendship at a distance. Adam Elliot’s animated comedy-drama follows their exchanges, with loneliness, mental health and the difficulty of understanding other people running through the story. Bethany Whitmore voices the young Mary, Toni Collette voices Mary and Philip Seymour Hoffman voices her pen friend, with Barry Humphries narrating a friendship conducted on paper.

## Review

Adam Elliot makes this film for anyone who has found a letter easier than a conversation. A lonely Australian girl and a New Yorker with Asperger’s syndrome become pen friends, and the film gives their attempts at understanding each other unusual patience. We recommend it for that patience, the voices and the care taken over its clay people. The humour can be coarse and the sadness overworked, but Elliot seldom treats either character as a convenient excuse for a lesson.

Gerald Thompson’s cinematography preserves the tactile pleasure of the animation: these figures look as though they occupy space and have weight. As production designer, Elliot makes their awkward shapes expressive enough that we can read a mood before anyone speaks. The visual jokes can be grotesque, and he does not tidy up his characters to make them easier to like. Colour helps give them a distinct presence. We can enjoy the workmanship without forgetting the people it serves.

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance is the strongest reason to stay with it. His measured delivery gives the impression of someone considering each word before entrusting it to another person, and the humour survives without a wink towards the audience. Bethany Whitmore and Toni Collette give Mary vulnerability without making her merely helpless. Between them, the performances allow these correspondents to be difficult, funny and worth listening to. We were moved by their letters, because the effort to be understood is audible in the voices.

Barry Humphries’s narration supplies a drier kind of company, describing peculiar behaviour with a composure that makes it funnier. Elliot’s writing also understands how much can go wrong when people try to explain themselves on paper. The letters are a useful form for this story: neither correspondent can immediately correct what the other has taken the wrong way. That delay gives ordinary misunderstandings a weight that spoken exchanges, with their quick reassurances, might not have.

Bill Murphy’s editing keeps the individual comic passages tidy, but cannot quite prevent the succession of troubles from becoming repetitive. At 92 minutes, the film occasionally feels longer than it needs to, particularly when another eccentric detail arrives after we have understood the person it describes. Dale Cornelius’s music brings warmth to the exchanges without erasing their discomfort. The voices need little assistance, though, and some of the sadness would be more effective if Elliot allowed it less emphasis.

The broader difficulty is the switch between bodily jokes and serious distress. Elliot is entitled to put both in the same film; people do not become less ridiculous because they are unhappy. A few transitions nevertheless feel abrupt, asking us to laugh and then feel concern before the previous joke has settled. The writing is usually compassionate enough to get away with this, but occasionally we become too aware of how hard it is working to upset us.

Animation need not make outsiders lovable, and this film is better for declining to do so. Its interest in friendship includes the inconvenience of it: another person may need patience when we have none to spare. There is no need to mistake the clay for a promise of gentle viewing. Choose it for an evening when funny and sad are both welcome, and when a friendship conducted in letters sounds like enough of a story.

*Fi1m score 80, published 15 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**How long is Mary and Max, and what is it rated?**

*Mary and Max* runs 1h 32m. It is an animation and comedy film.

**Where can I watch Mary and Max in Chile?**

*Mary and Max* is not on any streaming or rental service in Chile at the moment. It is available in 6 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**What should I watch after Mary and Max?**

After *Mary and Max*, try [*My Life as a Courgette*](https://film.one/film/my-life-as-a-zucchini) (2016, Fi1m 84): Another handmade animation that lets wounded people be funny without belittling them. Then [*The Lunchbox*](https://film.one/film/the-lunchbox) (2013, Fi1m 75): Letters offer two lonely people a cautious way back towards other lives; and [*The Station Agent*](https://film.one/film/the-station-agent) (2003, Fi1m 82): Patient company for outsiders who would rather avoid the usual consoling speeches.

### Reviews we read (14)

- **Empire**, Dan Parkinson (80/100, inferred): Adam Elliot’s feature debut is an offbeat and charming animation rooted in fact, by turns touching, bleak and droll, and bound for cult status despite some rocky moments. It stands out for its quirky, compassionate handling of heavy themes like loneliness, Asperger’s and suicide through grimly witty details and strong voice work. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mary-max-review/)
- **Time Out**, Cath Clarke (4/5): The reviewer praises it as a heartfelt and sadsack-funny claymation about an unlikely pen friendship, full of poignant non-sequiturs and gross humor, though it doesn't fully sustain its length; a moving celebration of oddness. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/mary-and-max)
- **Evening Standard** (60/100, inferred): Mary and Max is a funny but serious claymation about two odd pen pals hoping for something real from their letters, tackling strange medical and psychiatric conditions. The director intends to make viewers think, though the 88-minute runtime feels long for its eccentric proceedings. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/right-mix-in-mary-and-max-7422225.html)
- **Screen Daily**: The review calls it a melancholy true story of unlikely friendship told with bittersweet humor and visual panache that captures loneliness without mocking it; strong on character details but weaker on narrative structure. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/animation/mary-and-max/4042619.article)
- **Sight and Sound**, Mark Fisher: The critic finds the claymation film an oddball take on friendship that avoids facile uplift or bleakness, drawing comedy from grimness like Todd Solondz, and highlights its focus on correspondence and miscommunication. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/5676)
- **The Guardian**, Andrew Pulver: The critic finds the claymation film ambitious yet at times grotesque, managing to be both sickly-cute and right-on while detailing the pen-pal friendship between a lonely Australian girl and a New Yorker with Asperger's. The switches in tone are jolting, but the ambition is admirable despite uncertainty over whether the film laughs with or at its creations. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/mary-and-max-review)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**: The critic admires the film's painstaking clay animation and its compassionate embrace of flawed, marginalized characters but finds it emotionally distant and more admirable than lovable due to its melancholy tone and lack of commercial concessions. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/film-review-mary-amp-max-92752/)
- **Variety**: The film awkwardly combines maudlin sentiment, miserablist humor, and scatological gags in a glum tale of unlikely pen-pal friendship. Its mix of mordant whimsy and tearjerker moments ultimately curdles unappetizingly. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/mary-and-max-1200473302/)
- **Collider**, Jeff Giles (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's unusual blend of darkness and tremendous bittersweet heart, highlighting its exploration of self-acceptance, the redemptive power of honest human connection, and the idea that life is more about the journey than the destination. Elliot's deft handling of these themes and the powerful claymation make it linger long after the credits. [Read](https://collider.com/mary-and-max-review/)
- **The Skinny**, Philip Concannon (★★★★): The critic calls the film an enchanting stop-motion animated debut that succeeds due to its resonant central story of an unusual friendship, which is both funny and sad with a perfect emotional pitch. The distinctive and imaginative animation style, with wonderful use of colour and visual gags, is singled out alongside the outstanding vocal performances bringing the memorable characters to life. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/mary-and-max)
- **Den of Geek**, Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a visually exciting and hilariously cruel yet sweet animation that hits the spot overall, praising its loving claymation and visual flourishes. The story occasionally overruns its welcome in the third act when communication between characters breaks down. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/edinburgh-international-film-festival-mary-and-max-white-lightnin-and-a-boy-called-dad-reviews/)
- **Deadline** (60/100, inferred): The critic describes the Sundance opening-night film as ambitious and very funny, managing to laugh at its eccentric characters without mocking them. It is visually marvelous with a splendid Hoffman performance, though it runs out of ideas before the end. [Read](https://deadline.com/2009/01/sundance-film-festivals-strange-opening-8060/)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson: The critic praises the tactile qualities and exquisite detail of the stop-motion animation, which gives the characters authenticity and humanity. The film is described as a touching, acidly witty look at loneliness, the comfort of strangers, and societal ignorance. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/mary-and-max-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
- **The Wrap**: The critic calls it one of the year’s strangest and funniest films, a twisted claymation oddity not for kids. The unlikely friendship between the lonely Australian girl and her New York pen pal stands out for its brilliant weirdness and strong vocal performances. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/weird-brilliance-mary-and-max-11544/)

## Details

- **Director:** Adam Elliot
- **Director:** Adam Elliot
- **Writer:** Adam Elliot
- **Cinematography:** Gerald Thompson
- **Editor:** Bill Murphy
- **Music:** Dale Cornelius
- **Production design:** Adam Elliot
- **Producer:** Melanie Coombs
- **Cast:** Toni Collette as Mary (voice); Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max (voice); Barry Humphries as Narrator (voice); Eric Bana as Damien (voice); Bethany Whitmore as Young Mary (voice); Renée Geyer as Vera Lorraine Dinkle (voice); Ian 'Molly' Meldrum as Homeless Man (voice); John Flaus as Harvey Krumpet / Ken / Len Hislop (voice)
- **Runtime:** 1h 32m
- **First release (the US):** 15 January 2009
- **Genres:** Animation, Comedy, Drama
- **Budget:** $8 million
- **Box office:** $2 million

## Where to watch in Chile

Not streaming, renting or buying in Chile at the last check.

Also available in: AU, CA, CH, FR, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- AACTA Award for Best Original Screenplay 2009: AACTA Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominated)
- AACTA Award for Best Production Design 2009: AACTA Award for Best Production Design (nominated)
- Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film 2009: Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film (won)
- Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film 2009: Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film (won)

## If you liked this

- *My Life as a Courgette* (2016), Fi1m 84: Another handmade animation that lets wounded people be funny without belittling them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-life-as-a-zucchini.md)
- *The Lunchbox* (2013), Fi1m 75: Letters offer two lonely people a cautious way back towards other lives. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lunchbox.md)
- *The Station Agent* (2003), Fi1m 82: Patient company for outsiders who would rather avoid the usual consoling speeches. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-station-agent.md)
- *The Man Without a Past* (2002): Dry humour and stubborn kindness, with no hurry to make hardship picturesque.
- *The Straight Story* (1999), Fi1m 88: A patient journey that gives awkward silences and ordinary kindness their proper weight. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-straight-story.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/mary-and-max