Quick Thoughts - Mary and Max (2009)

11/22/13: This quirky piece of claymation could have been a great short film. It tells the true story of an awkward nine-year old Australian girl becoming penpals with an autistic old man in New York City, and the burden and wonder that this relationship holds for these two loners. Told solely through narration, which occupies the stretches not taken up by the characters reading the actual letters that were written, Mary and Max gets a little tiresome and one-note, even before it spirals from silly-sweet comedy into bitter, dark tragedy, which its odd animation style and annoying character design fail to fit. Though buoyed by a lot of interesting detail throughout, it becomes rather grueling to sit through in the end, and falls under its own weight. **