Mary and Max (2009)

Australian stop-motion animation Mary and Max is a real gem of a movie, it's one of those that you feel secretly pleased that not many people have seen it, but then bad because it's the sort of experience you would want everyone to have. It's based on the true story of young Mary in Australia, who writes at random to a man named Max in New York and the friendship that builds from their correspondence over the years. 

Max has asperger's syndrome and has some quite bizarre yet endearing habits, while Mary is picked on at school and misunderstood by her parents. Both are rather tragic figures, but writer-director Adam Elliot never makes you feel pity for either of them, rather through a frequently hilariously offbeat narration from Barry Humphries (and great voice work by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana and Bethany Whitmore) and an almost grotesque style of animation, real emotion and life is breathed into the characters. You feel their pain when a loved one dies, or when Mary or Max fails to connect with the people around them. 

Mary and Max is at times laugh out loud funny, at other points it encourages a lump in the throat, yet I ultimately took great encouragement and optimism away from the sad-yet-uplifting final scene. Yet again, animation proves to be a medium every bit as capable as being moving and heartfelt as any live action movie.