Mary and Max
Today as I browsed through the movie channels, I stopped by at Sony Pix to only thankfully catch a movie that got added to my “lessons in friendship” chapter in the book of my life.
To begin with this movie, unlike many other animated movies does not have colours or graceful, pretty looking or charming animated characters, but the essence is what I held onto. The beauty of the narration and the simply put script made the movie very relatable.
So this movie, for me, began ( Coz as always I hardly catch a movie on time, Just missed few minutes) where the narrator tells how Max and Mary become pen pal friends. Max, much elder to Mary (let’s say some 20 years) stays in New York, America and Mary a young girl of 8 stays in Australia. As Max replies to the first letter sent by Mary, he wonders how many days would it take for the letter to reach Australia.
The letter before reaching Mary is read by her mother who crumples it and throws it into the dustbin. But as destiny has it, just when the mother goes to the garbage van to throw the trash, the trash falls, and the chicken which Mary has as a pet grabs the crumpled letter which her mother had thrown.
Mary is then shown enthusiastically reading Max’s letter with torchlight under her sheet and immediately writes back to him. The tone of her language too sweetly innocent and her expression too adorable. As she ends her letter she writes:
"PS: Have you ever been teased?
PSS: My eyes have become wet and they make my letters soggy."
As Max receives her letter the question of ever having been bullied strikes him hard, as he remembers his childhood days of being bullied and teased for being a Jew.
He then, very beautifully types a letter to Mary saying that the next time someone teases her about her birthmark on her forehead, she should tell him that it is made up of chocolate and that will enable her an entry into the heaven where she would have lots of chocolate.
As Mary reads the letter, she is delighted to see Max’s reply and in her next letter writes to Max saying that the Bully began to cry as she uttered these words, and she is no more teased.
In the next letter Mary innocently asks questions from Max about how babies are born, tells him that she would like to be loved and often thinks of marrying a guy called Damien who lives across her street.
