I don’t know where to start about this film. I found it on netflix late one night and decided to give it a shot. I wasn’t expecting much considering the child like look of the cover photo. I had read reviews that it was a film very much for adults. I don’t know why but I was expecting it to be comical. It was in some ways along with touching, heart wrenching, dramatic, horrifying at times and largely eccentric.
This film is about a young outcast girl with a horrible home life, no friends and very low self esteem who somehow finds a middle aged man on the other side of the world to complete her. Nothing pervy! This friendship is beautiful. Max is an aspie and suffers from anxiety attacks after each of Mary’s letters. Max has never had a friend and has made it one of his three life goals. Mary is alone in the world and is desperately looking for comfort. The letters start out with simple questions and exchanges of chocolate by mail. Each of the characters are innocent in their own way and speak their minds to the point of humor and sometimes pain. They touch each other’s lives in a way the people right next to them cannot. You watch as Mary suffers from the death of her parents, the loss of her husband and the death of her career (this is due to her book based on Max himself and how to cure him which she cancels when Max reveals it has destroyed their friendship). Max is in and out of mental hospitals and jail for basically… being Max. In their lives only one thing is constant, no matter how far apart they are they can always comfort one another. This movie is not the type for fake happy endings and although the events are highly exaggerated the focus is very real. You see their dark thoughts, confused (confuzzled!) thoughts, and the very few happy ones. I am not one of those people who love the unrealistic endings where people “end up together” or “things work out”. The tragedy is the beauty for me. The tragedy is the honesty for me. At times this movie may hurt you to watch but the feeling afterwards can only be described as change.
These characters suffer ups and downs for 20 years and never lay eyes on each other until Max’s death when Mary walks in to meet him and discovers his face frozen, staring up at his ceiling papered with every letter Mary has ever sent. “You are my best friend, you are my only friend” echoes as the movie closes leaving you feeling happy but haunted. This is a film for all those who are imperfect so that they may explore imperfection in a very raw form. 5/5
Fly you fools 