Mary and Max

The opening night film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, MARY AND MAX is the animated (claymation) tale of a friendship between two unlikely pen pals and confidantes: Mary is a lonely and gloomy eight-year-old girl who lives with her alcoholic mother, her factory working father and a pet rooster, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and Max is a forty-four-year old, severely obese man with Asperger's syndrome living in New York City. They share a lengthy long-distance relationship, one seriously complicated by Max's mental health issues, which cause problems both physical and emotional. Toni Colette voices Mary and Philip Seymour Hoffman voices Max in MARY AND MAX, directed by Australian animator and Academy Award Winner Adam Elliott. It is a study of loneliness and curiosity. Eric Bana and Barry Humphries (Dame Edna) also supply characters' voices.