{"id":12017,"date":"2011-06-29T07:56:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T11:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=12017"},"modified":"2011-06-29T07:56:48","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T11:56:48","slug":"instant-watching-mary-and-max","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-mary-and-max\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant Watching: Mary and Max"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nIn her weekly column, Instant Watching, Christie Dean talks about recently produced obscure and independent films that are made available through Netflix\u2019s Instant Watch feature.<\/em><\/p>\nMary and Max<\/em> is a claymation, black comedy-drama about the 20 year penpal relationship between Mary Daisy Dinkle (Toni Collette) and Max Horovitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Mary is an eight year old Australian girl with an unfortunately positioned birthmark on her forehead, an alcoholic mother, a distant father, and no friends. Max is a forty year old New Yorker with Asperger\u2019s syndrome who loves chocolate, regularly sees a psychologist, and doesn\u2019t connect well with others. One day Mary finds a Manhattan phonebook and randomly picks out a name, which happens to be Max\u2019s, and a strong friendship begins as the two unlikely people bond over candy, their favorite TV show, and their assorted questions about all confusing aspects of life.<\/p>\nThis engaging, tragic, hilarious film had many themes but none permeated it so much as the universal need for community. Mary and Max<\/em> follows the two through many stages and hardships in their lives (including but not limited to divorce, alcoholism, and manslaughter) yet throughout it all they remain each other\u2019s best friend and learn how to love, advise, and forgive each other well. This, the quotable and witty lines, and some minor character subplots prevent the film from getting too depressing. Mary and Max\u2019s letter exchange helps them to overcome their extreme feelings of loneliness and inadequacy, and their unique relationship gives them hope for a more purposeful life. Mary and Max<\/em> is based on the director\u2019s twenty year friendship with his own penpal.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Mary and Max’s unlikely friendship gives them hope for a more purposeful life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1244,"featured_media":12025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[615,781],"class_list":["post-12017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asides","tag-instant-watching","tag-mary-and-max"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Instant Watching: Mary and Max<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Mary and Max's unlikely friendship gives them hope for a more purposeful life."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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