Mary and Max is the clay-mation feature film from Adam Elliot, the Australian filmmaker who won the 2004 Oscar for Best Animated Short for Harvie Krumpet. Mary and Max is a simple story of two lonely people who become pen-pals. Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Toni Collette) is a shy little 8-year old girl with an alcoholic mother living in the suburbs of Melbourne, while Max Jerry Horowitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 44-year old, obese, Jewish man (though he now considers himself Atheist) who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, living half a world away in New York City.

What they have in common, apart from liking chocolate and sharing a love of the television show The Noblets, is that they both desire a friend. And despite various ups and downs, they both find the friendship they are looking for in each other. It's an innocent film but it does touch on some significant ideas and themes. These include suicide, alcoholism, obesity, autism, sexuality, and the whole idea of being isolated and alone in the world. Added to this is Elliot's quirky sense of humour which permeates the entire film.

For these reasons many people have stated that this is a film only for adults, but I wouldn't go that far. While it's clearly not for young children, there is a lot of stuff in Mary and Max that many teenagers would relate to, and I believe they would enjoy it. In fact, the film did take away an award in the Children's category from the 2009 Berlin Film Festival—an award given by a jury consisting of 14-year olds.

In many ways, Mary and Max is a sad story but at the same time it is heart-warming and inspiring. Despite its somewhat heavy themes and ideas, Elliot handles the subject matter with sensitivity and restraint. Throw in the quirky humour and it becomes a very mature and moving piece of work. It's also very easy to see why this was five years in the making. The clay-mation is superb and you just sit in awe of what the filmmakers have created.

I will say, though, that it is a different cinematic experience watching an Adam Elliot film. There is a lot of narration of the story and not much dialogue from the characters. This does allow us to really get to know the characters as all their thoughts and feelings are conveyed to the audience via the narrator, but it also makes for a film that feels too slow at times. And it can take a bit to get used to. The best way I can describe it is that it's like having someone read a story to you while you watch the pictures. Not that this is a bad thing, just different.

At the end of the day, though, it's the story that is going to carry any film. And this particular story with its themes of being alone and isolated is one that many people can relate to. Both Mary and Max have something missing in their lives, they long for a friend, someone they can talk to and share their thoughts and feelings with. We can often feel like this in our own lives. We feel completely isolated, alone, and with no one to turn to.

But we need not feel like that because God is always there, ready to listen to anything and everything we have to say. All it takes is for us to acknowledge his presence in our lives and talk to Him. Pretty soon that feeling of being alone will disappear. Our lives may not be perfect—we will always have struggles to go through—but we'll never be alone.