A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. In the mid-1970s, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence. Will the two ever meet face to face?
This movie contains 70 potentially triggering events.
8-year-old Mary is often neglected by her parents, with Noel (her father) often in the shed stuffing dead animals, and Vera (her mother) providing no support at all.
In the first half of the movie, Vera is a alcoholic, often drinking cooking sherry. Later on, adult Mary starts drinking cooking sherry like her mother.
Not really a jumpscare, but there is a part where it depicts Max’s mother killing herself with a gun. It’s not shown, but there is a loud gunshot noise that might jumpscare some people.
There's a scene in a mental hospital, a brief scene of someone about to get and recovering from cosmetic surgery, and also a few scenes at a dentist's office
A fat character makes up his own unhealthy dishes which could be interpreted as a fat joke. The narrator also comments on the character getting "wider", though the entire story is narrated in this kind of quirky way so I'm not sure if this is really a fat joke or not. Max goes to an overreaters anonymous group where fat people are hated on
A boy is hit on the back of the head for stuttering. A character goes to an overreaters anonymous group where fat people are hated on. Doctors drug and electrocute an autistic man. The word "retarded" is also used
The main ending of the movie is bittersweet, with Mary finding out Max kept all her letters. Whereas in an alternative version (only on DVD), Max is eaten by birds.
https://youtu.be/SMJzHaMNdAk
One of Max's fish jumps out the window and gets hit by a car.
In the alternative ending, Mary’s agoraphobic neighbour gets hit by a car after giving Mary’s parcel.
https://youtu.be/SMJzHaMNdAk