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"Mary and Max" was the opening night selection at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film was a clayography feature from writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs and it told a very unusual story about a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (Toni Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in New York City. While the film didn't get stellar reviews, it was a good movie that deserved to be seen. Thankfully, while it isn't getting a theatrical release, I've just found out the film will premiere nationwide on most cable systems on October 14th, 2009 via Sundance Selects on-demand. More after the jump:

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The first thing I suggest doing is watching some clips and the trailer from "Mary and Max" here. As you'll see, this isn't your typical animated film. Saying that, I found the humor very funny and the love story touching. Here's the official synopsis:

Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, MARY AND MAX tells of a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (Toni Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. As MARY AND MAX chronicles Mary's trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max's passage from middle to old age, it explores a bond that survives much more than the average friendship's ups-and-downs. Like Elliot and Coombs' Oscar winning animated short HARVIE KRUMPET, MARY AND MAX is both hilarious and poignant as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life's surprises.

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So if you have any of the cable systems below, I definitely suggest checking out the film. Finally, here's a review of the film and here's my interview with writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs.

Cable systems that will carry MARY AND MAX:

BRIGHT HOUSE

CABLEVISION

COMCAST

COX

TIME WARNER

UPDATE - I just found out "Mary and Max" will have a limited 1 week theatrical run starting Friday, September 25 at Laemmle Town Center in Encino, CA. This is obviously to qualify it for Awards stuff. So if you live in Los Angeles and want to see the film in a theater, this is the place.

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