I thought this was one of the previous year's Oscar nominees but it doesn't appear to be after all. It won a bunch of Australian awards. It's a cute little claymation film based on the true story of Mary, an 8-year-old Australian girl and Max, a 40-year-old New Yorker with Asperger's Syndrome, and their pen pal relationship. Beginning in 1976, Mary (Toni Collette) copies an address randomly from the New York phone book and writes a letter to it, asking questions she can't get answered by her alcoholic mother or her mostly absent father. Max, having no friends thanks to his as-yet-undiagnosed condition, writes back. Their letters fly back and forth, despite Max's anxiety attacks culminating in an 8 month stay in a psych ward, for years as Mary grows up, goes to college, and gets married. Things seem to be going to well, at least for her, until she publishes a dissertation on Max's condition, infuriating him, and her husband (Eric Bana) leaves her for his pen pal, Desmond.
Even though it's animated, probably best to keep your kids away from this one. There's no cursing but there is a bit of claymation nudity and, thematically, it's pretty dark. Well worth a look by adult audiences, however.
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