Mary and Marx is a 2009 Australian clay animation film that opened at the Sundance Film Festival, directed by Adam Eliot and co-starring Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, eric Barna, and others. The film was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 15, 2009.
It constructs a simplified and realistic reality space with rough and bulky clay, supplemented by two basic tones of dark yellow, black and white, and slightly monotonous narration to tell this simple story. However, the film is not childish or boring, it relies on its unique "clumsiness" to touch people's hearts and touch the softest corners of people's hearts. In particular, the film portrays Marx, a patient with Asperger's disease, and Mary, who is also somewhat depressed and withdrawn, and some of their characteristics resonate with all kinds of modern people in society.
There was no sweet love in it, only some daily spit, mary at her own age she could know very limited, at first she even thought that the baby came from the can. She had a lot of her own little troubles, no one around to talk to, and finally found a person's address in the contact book of the post office and wrote a letter.
Marx is the person who receives the letter, his life is certainly not successful, fat, ugly looking, no stable job and all day long spit this spit that, as if there is no thing around him that can make him satisfied, after receiving the letter why he will reply to the letter has been forgotten.
Just as Mary was about to end her life, Marx's letter of forgiveness saved her. Marx said in his letter:
Love yourself first
"I forgive you because you're not perfect, you're not perfect and I'm like, no one is perfect, even those who throw clutter outside the door. When I was young I wanted to be anyone but myself, Dr. Bernard Hashoef said, and if I was on an isolated island, then I would have to adapt to living alone, with only coconuts and me.
He said I had to accept myself, my flaws and my wholeness. We can't choose our own shortcomings, they are part of us, we have to adapt to them, yet we can choose our friends, and I'm glad I chose you. Dr. Bernard Haschoff also said that everyone's life is a long sidewalk, some are very flat, and some, like me, have cracks in banana peels and cigarette butts, and your sidewalk is similar to mine, but not so many cracks in mine. One day, hopefully, you and I will intersect on the sidewalks, when we can share a jar of condensed milk.
You are my best friend. You are my only friend. ”
During these 20 years, they shared the joys and sorrows of life with each other, and also discussed many life problems. The film ends with the following passage: "We cannot choose our own shortcomings, they are a part of us, and we can only accept them." However, we can choose our own friends. "As an autobiographical film of Eliot, this film condenses the director's thinking and praise for friendship, and reflects the great role of friendship in the road of human growth. Mary and Marx, who find the other half of their souls through letters, soothe their inner loneliness and grow up in the process of mutual healing.