Welcome to Marwen

I went to see Welcome To Marwen the other day. Someone puked all over the seat in front of them halfway through it. Nothing disgusting had happened onscreen. They just puked. It just felt right.

Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell) is a troubled individual. A few years ago he was badly beaten outside a bar by a group of neo nazi's when they caught wind of one of his interests. Since then he's put all his energy into creating a miniature World War 2 era village called Marwen that's populated by a miniature version of himself called Cap'n Hogie and 6 female dolls based on the women he knows in real life. When he's photographing the dolls they come to life in his head and he uses them to deal with the trauma in his life by substituting his real life terrors for nazi dolls attacking the village. Soon though, he's going to have to step out of his imaginary world and deal with things once and for all.

We only exist to serve you Mark

It sounds kind of interesting right? It's directed by Robert Zemeckis who gave us a few mighty films back in the 1980's and 90's and it has a cast to die for. It couldn't go wrong could it? Well it does. Welcome To Marwen is awful. It's a film Steve Carell will look back on in a few years while he sits in the corner crying and roaring "WHY?? WHY DID I AGREE TO STAR IN THAT?" It's muck. Tonally bonkers, creepy, embarrassing, mawkish trash. It's based on a true story that was made into a documentary in 2010 called Marwencol. That documentary was a poignant and fascinating watch that showed us the effects of PTSD and the different things people do to heal themselves. The film adds a horrible fantasy element that steals any bit of dignity from the story and it's a shame because it's a story that didn't need any silly embellishment. 

If you see the trailer for this and decide to go based on the amount of famous actresses in the movie I'll stop you right there. Gwendoline Christie, Leslie Mann, Janelle Monáe, Merrit Weaver, Diane Kruger (serious line up right!) are all totally wasted, playing characters that don't even register as real people. They only exist to prop up Mark, to give him a sounding board and creepily, to be fuel for his imagination. Mann especially, as Mark's new neighbour Nicol plays an embarrassing part. The kind of person that could only exist in a film and of course she appears at just the right time to help Mark move on with his life. Carell plays Mark like a cross between Michael Scott and Andy from The 40 Year Old Virgin. He feels like Zemeckis is positioning him to be a Forrest Gump (which Zemeckis also directed) type character for a modern day audience and it's a tough performance to watch knowing he's based on a real life person.

There could have been something good here. Nazi's as villains might have seemed far fetched when the Marwencol documentary was made but in 2018 the American political landscape is rather different. During the film Mark is asked why he's so interested in World War 2 and replies "Cos it's the last time America was the good guy." A telling line. The film is nostalgic for an America of a different age. When it was an idealistic place, before it was ran by a demagogue. Seeing people successfully deal with mental health issues and triumphing in the face of difficulty is always a good thing too but everytime the film cuts back to the fantasy sequences it undoes any bit of goodwill created. It's just a mess. 

Don't bother with this. Wait until it's on netflix and just let play it in the background.