There’s now another “Aspie” movie to see. I’ve watched the film Mary and Max more than once so far and highly recommend it. It’s not geared for children like the movies Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. I don’t know how I’d describe it other than to say it is a emotionally moving tale based on a true story. Others who have seen it also love it and think it’s awesome.
Here’s one synopsis of the film:
Mary and Max is a claymated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award winning short animation Harvie Krumpet. It is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, Mary and Max’s friendship survives much more than the average diet of life’s ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max is innocent but not naïve, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much much more.
Jeff Giles gives a more extensive review of Mary and Max on Collider.com.
Wikipedia states, “The film premiered on the opening night of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. In June 2009, the film won the Annecy Cristal from the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. It won Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in November 2009. The film takes place from 1976 to 1998 and deals with several dark themes including neglect, suicide, depression and anxiety. Overtones of humour are frequent.”
If you can’t find a theater featuring the movie, it can be viewed online. Amazon.com gives the DVD release date as being June 15, 2010.
