Welcome to Marwen is brought to us by the director by the director of Forrest Gump, the BTTF trilogy and many other great movies and tells the story based around Mark Hogancamp and the fictional town of Marwen.
Regardless of whether or not it tells the full, non-fiction story or one based on it, I was mostly pretty impressed with this movie, although there are some elements that it could've improved on.
This movie presents a compelling story about a man who has lost nearly everything in his life and uses model homes and dolls to create a story as a coping mechanism. I find this to be a very intriguing idea for a story because it presents the audience with a way to look into Mark's past and his trauma. For the most part I think they handled it pretty well, where it is done mostly with visuals, and I think this is the film's strongest element. Steve Carell is fantastic in this film in his portrayal of Mark. He makes the character feel believable through his facial expressions, actions and dialogue. He gives off a good impression of what someone with PTSD is like and I think that's another one of the best things about the film. Finally, the CGI for the dolls was a dazzling sight to behold. I know it's nothing new considering that we got this in movies like the Toy Story franchise, but I really enjoy the way Zemeckis presents the world of Marwen as how it feels like this miniature world. To me, it wouldn't be surprising if the CG effects used was motion capture considering that the director worked with it in the past.
As someone who is not familiar with the real story, I will say that the movie is still not without its flaws, and its biggest one would have to be the plot structure. The movie revolves around two plots, the A plot, which looks at Mark's struggle with PTSD and the B plot, which revolves around Marwen. These two plots are both there, but it doesn't feel like there's much of a connection between the two. I mean, yes, both plots connect a few times in the movie, but by the resolution there doesn't seem to be much of a means where these plots come together. They just feel separate throughout nearly the entire film. I also found the ending to be rushed; it feels like the movie was nearing its runtime and they just somewhat crammed the remainder of it into the last 5 minutes of the movie.
Regardless, I did enjoy my time seeing this despite the narrative flaws that really drag it down.
5/10
Regardless of whether or not it tells the full, non-fiction story or one based on it, I was mostly pretty impressed with this movie, although there are some elements that it could've improved on.
This movie presents a compelling story about a man who has lost nearly everything in his life and uses model homes and dolls to create a story as a coping mechanism. I find this to be a very intriguing idea for a story because it presents the audience with a way to look into Mark's past and his trauma. For the most part I think they handled it pretty well, where it is done mostly with visuals, and I think this is the film's strongest element. Steve Carell is fantastic in this film in his portrayal of Mark. He makes the character feel believable through his facial expressions, actions and dialogue. He gives off a good impression of what someone with PTSD is like and I think that's another one of the best things about the film. Finally, the CGI for the dolls was a dazzling sight to behold. I know it's nothing new considering that we got this in movies like the Toy Story franchise, but I really enjoy the way Zemeckis presents the world of Marwen as how it feels like this miniature world. To me, it wouldn't be surprising if the CG effects used was motion capture considering that the director worked with it in the past.
As someone who is not familiar with the real story, I will say that the movie is still not without its flaws, and its biggest one would have to be the plot structure. The movie revolves around two plots, the A plot, which looks at Mark's struggle with PTSD and the B plot, which revolves around Marwen. These two plots are both there, but it doesn't feel like there's much of a connection between the two. I mean, yes, both plots connect a few times in the movie, but by the resolution there doesn't seem to be much of a means where these plots come together. They just feel separate throughout nearly the entire film. I also found the ending to be rushed; it feels like the movie was nearing its runtime and they just somewhat crammed the remainder of it into the last 5 minutes of the movie.
Regardless, I did enjoy my time seeing this despite the narrative flaws that really drag it down.
5/10