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- 2018
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 56 m
- 2018
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 56 m
Summary When a devastating attack shatters Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell) and wipes away all memories, no one expected recovery. Putting together pieces from his old and new life, Mark meticulously creates a wondrous town where he can heal and be heroic. As he builds an astonishing art installation—a testament to the most powerful women he knows—...
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Written By: Caroline Thompson, Robert Zemeckis
- 2018
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 56 m
- 2018
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 56 m
Welcome To Marwen
40
6.2
Where to Watch
Summary When a devastating attack shatters Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell) and wipes away all memories, no one expected recovery. Putting together pieces from his old and new life, Mark meticulously creates a wondrous town where he can heal and be heroic. As he builds an astonishing art installation—a testament to the most powerful women he knows—...
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Written By: Caroline Thompson, Robert Zemeckis
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 38 Critic Reviews
40
21% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
45% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
34% Negative
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 38 Critic Reviews
40
21% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
45% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
34% Negative
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
One of the many graceful touches in Welcome to Marwen is the total lack of pity or condescension in either world.
Welcome to Marwen won’t be another Zemeckis blockbuster, won’t be anybody’s idea of Oscar bait. But here’s a thought-provoking holiday movie that gives the viewer something to chew on even if the story feels a trifle undigested, at times.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 56 User Ratings
6.2
46% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
43% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 56 User Ratings
6.2
46% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
43% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
I was both thoroughly enjoyed and moved by Welcome to Marwen. It touched on a point that is rarely cared about in society today but exists in many people. Nobody in the world is truly the same yet we are expected to follow a set forth path in life, conforming to the mass majority but that's not what life is about. Its about living, loving and enjoying each of our own passions regardless of what they may be and that no one should be judged for being different or expected to conform to the mass majority and if anything this movies' reviews and sales prove exactly what its trying to show, that people judge indifference negatively. It has a true story and it tells it perfectly.
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Ultimately, this is the best version of this story that the CG-obsessed Zemeckis could have possibly produced. But just because he could make it, that doesn't mean he should.
The film fetishises female strength, but only in its ability to prop up men; its women remain prettified empty shells.
As for those special effects, they are vivid, colorful, convincing. They aren’t quite so good that you don’t notice the WWII fantasy scenarios enacted therein are clichéd constructions reenacted in high heels.
Welcome to Marwen is a disastrously misconceived movie, but in such a boring way that it’s hard to imagine its target audience. Most of the time, big-screen disasters are hugely ambitious tales that completely miss the mark. This one hits the mark, but it’s probably not a target anybody should have been aiming at.
The results are mind-numbingly immense, joylessly violent and utterly lifeless.
Much better than I was led to believe by the movie's reception when it was released. The main character's catharsis seems real and impactful, and the movie avoids many usual "based on a true story" tropes it could have become mired in. The expert use of VFX helped me to understand better how the model-making acted as form of therapy, following unspeakable trauma. There are dream-like qualities in this movie, which actually made me feel closer to this man who had been left with a tenuous grip on reality. I would certainly recommend this movie, especially if, like me, you're bored of conventional awards-bait biopics.
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Steve Carell plays Mark Hogancamp, a real person who was brutally attacked outside a bar. As a coping mechanism, he created a miniature town where he can play out WWII fantasies populated with characters from his experiences (this was also chronicled in a doc about his life and work). The drama continuously moves from his imaginary world to the traumas of his lonely life. A cool new visual effects technique is used to give the actors doll-like qualities (plastic skin, hard hair, articulated joints). The "war" scenes add an interesting layer to the narrative, but aren't especially exciting. The human encounters just pile on the suffering without much emotional involvement. It's an interesting cinematic approach, but more as a fictional version of the doc than a moving experience. In a nod to one of director Robert Zemeckis' greatest hits, there's are "Back to the Future" skid marks from the time machine.
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In spite of occasionally dazzling visuals and heartfelt performances, Welcome to Marwen comes off as lackluster and deeply disappointing. The true story of Mark Hogencamp comes off as shallow and trying too hard to make the audience feel good. Whats worse is that his fantasies come off as hypersexualized and creepy. This is a total disservice to the real story of a man who suffered a violent hate crime. While Steve Carrell is a fantastic actor, and really does his best with a lot of the scenes, the script completely undermines his work, and doesn't do service to either his acting ability, or the acting ability of the supporting cast. There are some shining moments, but not enough to make me want to revisit this movie.
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If you couldn’t think of a better example where Hollywood puts its hands on something and made it boom, pop and explode like never before, Welcome To Marwen is the film to prove all of your theories correct.
Based on the 2010 documentary Marwencol, the film is a fictional and glamoured retelling of a documentary feature film that showcases the triumphs of a man who was severely and brutally attacked that left him with irreversible brain-damage. Mark Hogancamp is undoubtedly a survivor. After the attack, the once established and successful artist began creating a 1:6 scale world where he finds therapy, healing and redemption from the horrors of his past.
In the 2018 fictionalization feature film, Steve Carrell plays Hogancamp, a man whose hyper-fantizies sex, violence and victory in Marwen. While the city of Marwen is inhabited by Captian Hogie, a miniature version of himself, as a ruthless and brave military captain, the only other residents are the women of Marwen, each represented by strong and kind women in Mark’s life. While many of the women’s stories become as interesting as Mark’s, we come to fall in love with the women of Marwen, no matter how treacherous they are to the “****” that constantly threaten their home.
Although Welcome To Marwen is the story of Hogancamp, the direction quickly shifts to his feminine rebellion; GI Julie (Janelle Monáe), Carlala (Eiza González), Anna (Gwendoline Christie), Suzette (Leslie Zemeckis), a group of influential women that help Mark recovery from epic tragedy. Even though each of the women are a representation of the women in Mark’s reality, he quickly makes them sexy and tough-as-nails heroes of Marwen, constantly standing by and protecting Hogie, no matter how hocus the narrative really is.
The shift in Mark’s life comes with the introduction of a new neighbour across the street, Nicol (Leslie Mann), who has her own story of tragedy and strife. Together, Mark and Nicol, as well as all the other women in Mark’s life face the many challenges of their lives head on, and without apologies.
Welcome To Marwen is a story about pain; embracing the pain, loving the pain and dealing with the pain and using it as fuel for recovery and successful. Yet, while the themes of Marwen are very strong and incredibly inspiring, one cant help but notice just how painful the film really is. Mixing stop-motion capture technology for the fictitious world of Marwen, and integrating the fantasy with reality, really symbolizing real life issues with action figures, the themes in Zemeckis’ newest feature get lost in over-ambition. One of the biggest disappointments of Marwen is the poor use of such a talented and great cast, and under utilizing the fantastic actors for pure spectacle.
While, at first, the animation becomes quite charming and humorous, it quickly overstays its welcome. Zemeckis, a master of story-telling and innovating the medium of cinema and motion-capture technology (as seen in The Polar Express), it’s over stylization here gives Marwen a bloated and bizarre entrance; and instead of getting lost in a world, the audience feels more like they are stuck in Marwen with no exit for the film’s two-hour runtime.
While hate and discrimination spark the world of Marwen, love and determination save it. Yet, authenticity is lacking within every frame of Welcome To Marwen, especially when a filmmaker like Zemeckis is at the helm; it truly becomes an example of the expectations of film-lovers and how they react to film that’s poorly made or executed with such dissatisfaction.
Based on the true triumph of a man who used his tragic story into a story of success and glory, Hogencamp’s pictures of his figurines of Marwencol were featured in a New York gallery in 2006, and eventually made into a documentary in which this film is based on. While Hogencamp still suffers very severe forms of post-traumatic stress following the incident and violent hate-crime that nearly left him dead, his story is one that inspires so much hope and strength to others who have had near-death experiences, or even just need a little hope in the everyday and mundane difficulties of life. Unfortunately, Welcome To Marwen isn’t the film to illicit many of those feelings.
Isolated from the outside world, threatened by everyday acts and routines and surrounded by endless love and kindness, Mark Hogencamp is the real deal when it comes to overcoming your demons and facing your fears. Sadly, Welcome To Marwen comes short on proving to being a story to ignite emotions of inspiration, hope and new beginnings.
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Production Company
Universal Pictures,
Dreamworks Pictures,
Perfect World Pictures,
ImageMovers,
Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC),
Dentsu,
Fuji Television Network
Release Date Dec 21, 2018
Duration 1 h 56 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline The Director of FORREST GUMP Invites You to a Most Unexpected Place
Awards
Visual Effects Society Awards
• 3 Nominations
Leo Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
