既生粘土，何生3D

 "Almighty claymation," I exclaimed as the credits for the film 瑪莉 and Max rolled across the screen. Incredibly moving and witty, this claymated feature film is what I'm going to review this week.

瑪莉 is a lonely 9-year-old living in the countryside of Melbourne who loves chocolate and a cartoon series called The Noblettes. And she has no friends.

Living on the other half of the planet is a 44-year-old 紐約er named Max, an obese autism patient. And he has no friends, either.

By a strange twist of fate, 瑪莉 randomly chooses Max's name from a phonebook and decides to write him a letter so as to find a friend, beginning a 20-year pen pal friendship.

As 瑪莉 grows up, Max gets old. The two friends have become each other's only confidant in the world. They find the happiness of true friendship and help each other go through the ups and downs of their humble lives.

Such a simple tale of pen-pal friendship between two nobodies can hardly be considered a secure basis for the screenplay of a mainstream commercial animation. But director and screenwriter Adam Elliot not only brings the clay characters to life but also exquisitely turns a bunch of letters into emotionally complex communications.

With sardonic humor and innocent imaginings mixed in, the story of 瑪莉 and Max is full of life's dissonances and has a dark and bitter undertone. However, a bit of psychology may explain why it is by no means depressing as a whole. When a movie tells of someone's heartbreaking misfortune in a surprisingly optimistic tone, a viewer usually loses the ability to either laugh or cry. Instead, they have to abandon any particular emotion and actively explore the humanity in an aching yet broad sense. Most perceptive moviegoers may find there are elements of 瑪莉 and Max buried somewhere in their own subconscious.

It calls for a lot of hard work for a movie to bring the audience to this realization. The movie 瑪莉 and Max builds on it deft humor, vivid narration and profound humanity to finally culminates in a beautifully constructed aesthetic.

I give this absolute gem an 8.5 out of 10.