Mary and Max

Traditional and computer animation has come so far, it is no surprise to find the clayography film Mary and Max is so deeply moving. Adam Elliot wrote, directed, and produced the movie, inspired by his own twenty year “pen friend” relationship with a New Yorker. In Mary and Max, Elliot has crafted an eloquent and sincere depiction of an unlikely friendship. Mary is an oft-teased eight year old girl who lives in Australia with her eccentric parents and a pet rooster. Max is an extremely overweight forty-four year old New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome. What they have in common is loneliness, tempered by a love of chocolate and a cartoon series called “The Noblets.” Half a world apart, they cling to their epistolary friendship as they deal with issues of self-esteem, loss, weight-loss, and anxiety. This is not an animated film for children, by any means – it is an expressive film that encompasses an entire life, and how important it is to have a friend.

To voice young Mary Daisy Dinkle, Elliot chose eight year old Bethany Whitmore, and she is an absolute delight. Toni Collette is credited with voicing Mary, but what they really mean is grown-up Mary. I think you’ll agree that young Mary is the one that will stay with you forever. Receiving Mary's letters is Max Jerry Horovitz, perfectly voiced by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. And the animators clearly adore their progeny. The exquisite, painstaking detail in every shot or frame is remarkable. The film’s website boasts that Max’s typewriter was a fully-functioning miniature that required nine weeks of design and construction. That’s more work than the New York skyline, which took two months.

(For more statistics on the production check out www.maryandmax.com, a really lovely website for the film. Bet you can’t guess how much lube they needed.)

También la lluvia

In 2000 Bolivia, a young filmmaker and his producer set out to make a movie about Columbus’s arrival in the West and his relationship with the natives. Between religion, politics, need, passion, and decency, morality is tossed like a hot potato. It is one of the most profound elements of the film. Gael Garcia Bernal plays the young filmmaker with of selfish zeal, driven to produce an authentic representation of Spanish history, but at the core of the story is his producer Costa, played by an excellent Luis Tosar. Mediator and cheerleader, his responsibilities quickly become greater than he could possibly have imagined. His efforts to save a buck by filming in Bolivia are thwarted when local conflict over the privatization of water escalates to demonstrations and mass violence. To the privileged and the able, there is no question of loyalty to the film’s production. For the locals in need of water, much more than production deadlines weigh on their shoulders. The question then – for everyone – becomes: “At what cost?” What will it cost to safely make this film? What does it cost to pursue your career? What are you willing to lose for the right to fresh, clean water? When do you say ‘enough?’

There’s a lot going on in También la lluvia; there’s a film within a film, social uprising, human rights debate, morality, representation of history, and a clash of cultures. Not to mention the fact that I’m watching it with English subtitles, knowing only bits of Spanish myself. All the same, it is an ambitious film that manages to accomplish quite a lot of what it intends. No wonder Angelina Jolie has adopted so many children from foreign countries. To be a sensitive person filming in a deeply conflicted country… I cannot imagine.