Mary And Max Page #2

Synopsis: In the mid-1970's, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. He's Max Horowitz, an overweight man with Asperger's, living alone in New York. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. Mary falls in love with a neighbor, saves money to have a birthmark removed and deals with loss. Max has a friendship with a neighbor, tries to control his weight, and finally gets the dream job. Will the two ever meet face to face?
Director(s): Adam Elliot
Production: IFC Films
  4 wins & 9 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
95%
NOT RATED
Year:
2009
92 min
Website
2,660 Views


I have a rooster called Ethel

that looks like this.

He doesn't lay eggs but will one day.

My mother likes smoking,

cricket and sherry

and my father likes playing in his shed

with dead birds.

Where do babies come from

in America?

Do they come from cola cans?

In Australia

they are found in beer glasses.

Here is a drawing of me.

I can't draw ears proper

but I'm good at teeth.

It would be great if you could write back

and be my friend.

Yours "sincerealy", Mary Daisy Dinkle.

PS. I hope you like the chocolate bar

I'm also sending.

It's called a Cherry Ripe.

Goodbye, letter. Don't forget to write.

Max hated Thursdays

the day of his weekly

Overeaters Anonymous meeting.

And tonight he'd felt

especially unsettled

because he'd eaten two chocolate

hotdogs on his way there.

OK, class...

Eating chocolate was breaking the rules.

He'd found the night

even more unbearable

because of Marjorie Butterworth's

strange glances.

Class dismissed.

Max had trouble understanding

non-verbal signals.

Flirting was as foreign to him

as jogging.

Max found most people very confusing.

But little did Max realise

his night was about to become

even more confusing and cryptic.

Hmm.

He read Mary's letter four times

and then did what he normally did

whenever confronted

with something new and stressful.

Max's fragile existence

had once again become unsettled.

And after staring out of the window

for 18 hours

he finally made a decision.

Dear Mary Daisy Dinkle,

thank you for the letter,

which I opened and read at 9.1 7pm

after my Overeaters Anonymous class.

I am trying to lose weight

because my psychiatrist,

Dr Bernard Hazelhof,

says a healthy body

equals a healthy mind.

Ooooh!

He says my mind is not that healthy.

Your drawing is an interesting

visual portrayal of yourself.

I have never met anyone from Australia.

Firstly, I will answer your question.

Unfortunately, in America,

babies are not found in cola cans.

I asked my mother when I was four

and she said they came from eggs

laid by rabbis.

If you aren't Jewish,

they're laid by Catholic nuns.

If you're an atheist,

they're laid by dirty, lonely prostitutes.

So this is where babies come from

in America.

I share my home with a fish,

some snails, whom I have named

after famous scientists...

..a parakeet called Mr Biscuit

and, finally, a cat called Hal.

"Hal" is an abbreviation for halitosis,

from which he suffers.

He followed me home

after a gang of children

shot his eye out with a beebee gun.

Do you have a pet kangaroo?

When I was born, my father

left my mother and me on a kibbutz.

She shot herself with my uncle's gun

when I was six.

Do you like chocolate hotdogs?

Rate this script:4.7 / 6 votes

Adam Elliot

Adam Elliot (born 2 January 1972 in Berwick, Victoria, Australia) is an independent Australian stop-motion animation writer, director and producer based in Melbourne, Australia. His five films have collectively participated in over seven hundred film festivals and have received over one hundred awards, including an Academy Award for Harvie Krumpet and five Annecy Cristals. Elliot calls himself an auteur filmmaker and each of his films have a bittersweet nature to them. He does not engage with commercial work and works exclusively on his own film projects. Based loosely on his family and friends, Elliot calls each of his works a Clayography – clay animated biography. Each film takes up to five years to complete. He is noted for his use of traditional 'in-camera' techniques, which means every prop set and character is a 'real' miniature handcrafted object. Elliot does not use digital additions or computer generated imagery to enhance his visual aesthetic. His company, Adam Elliot Clayographies, produce the films and Elliot’s work practices adhere to the French auteur methodology. Each film has been voiced by notable actors including, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Eric Bana, William McInnes , Barry Humphries and John Flaus. Elliot is also a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in 1999 was awarded The Young Achiever of the Year for Victoria. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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