There is another Aspergers film out there, and while this one won’t be in the theaters it will be widely available starting next week. “Mary and Max” is about an eight year old girl who becomes pen-pals with a 40 year old guy with Aspergers. Its a great film if you want to look at Aspergers with a sense of humor and try and get a laugh on the literal analytical tendencies of those on the Autism spectrum. Mary and Max was the official opening film of the Sundance Film Festival and while it was not a great hit at Sundance I think it definitely deserves some attention.
Mary and Max
Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, MARY AND MAX tells of a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz, a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. As MARY AND MAX chronicles Mary’s trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max’s passage from middle to old age, it explores a bond that survives much more than the average friendship’s ups-and-downs. Like Elliot and Coombs’ Oscar winning animated short HARVIE KRUMPET, MARY AND MAX is both hilarious and poignant as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life’s surprises.
Mary and Max will be carried on select US Cable systems this week on Sundance Selects.
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