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Created Apr 10, 2011 12:16PM PST • Edited Apr 23, 2011 02:30AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Barely OK 2.0

   Mary and Max renders a bone-dry absurdist story in claymation’s grotesquely uncharitable visuals. Unfortunately the story is charitable only to the odd couple of the title: he a middle-aged autistic living in NYC, she a little girl growing up in near abusive squalor in Australia. Pairing a grown man with a prepubescent girl? Mildly creepy – just one of many absurdist ironies strewn through the movie.

   Misanthropy cloaked in black humor makes Mary and Max oddly compelling and occasionally amusing, if not especially entertaining. Brilliance does not equal entertainment value.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Philip Seymour Hoffman sounds nothing like himself in voicing a middle-aged New Yorker. Impressive.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars OK 2.5

7. Female Costars Pretty Bad 1.5

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Barely OK 2.0

    Claymation is an acquired taste, in part because it facilitates a grotesque visual depiction of people. Grotesque visuals inspire absurd stories, a dangerous business that can hit the funny bone or cause discomfort. Mary and Max mostly did the latter for this reviewer.

    It’s worth noting that the bone dry screenplay and claymation visuals are mostly brilliant, just more mean than meaningful. Hence the low ratings below.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play Bad 1.0

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Barely OK 2.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Gentle 1.5

19. Rudeness Polite 1.5

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.2

    Asperger’s syndrome gets charitably explored in Mary and Max, one of the movie’s occasional grace notes. Those affected by this oddness-inducing social interaction disorder may or may not find the movie comforting, given how much other crap it includes.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Supernatural 3.3

24. Physical Supernatural 3.4