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| Courtesy of Universal |
Robert
Zemeckis continues to prove he’s one of the most visually innovative filmmakers
of the modern era. From classics like Back to the Future (my all-time favorite
movie) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, to dazzling special effects extravaganzas
like Forrest Gump and his experiments with motion capture animation (The Polar
Express, A Christmas Carol), the director always ensures that astounding visual
components are at the forefront of how he tells stories.
He maintains
that track record with Welcome to Marwen, once again utilizing motion capture
– without those creepy, soulless eyes – to convey the rich fantasy world that
exists inside the protagonist’s traumatized mind. Loosely based on a true story
(which you can check out in the documentary Marwencol), this quirky drama
focuses on Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell), an artist who was almost killed in a
brutal beating that erased all his pre-attack memories.
Once
a talented illustrator, he utilizes his artistic talents to create a fictional
town where he uses action figures and dolls to work through his trauma. That’s
where Zemeckis’ creativity comes in. Carell and actresses including Merritt Wever,
Leslie Mann, Janelle Monae and Eiza Gonzalez play “real” people as well as the plastic
toys that Hogancamp uses to make sense of the tragedy he endured.
These
are by far the trippiest and most entertaining sequences of the movie, although
they don’t completely work. (More on that in a moment.) But it’s intriguing to
see how Zemeckis transitions, most of the time seamlessly, from one world to
the other. He also throws in quite a few Easter eggs that reference his previous
films – including a glaringly obvious one that bugged me at first but made sense
in retrospect. (It helped that Zemeckis explained the object’s inclusion during
a post-screening Q&A.)
In
what has turned out to be a busy fall for Carell (he also stars in the
drug-addiction drama Beautiful Boy and has a supporting role as in the upcoming
Dick Cheney biopic Vice), the actor delivers an incredible performance that weaves
comedy, drama, pathos and romance together, often simultaneously. Mann is also quite
good in a tricky role; getting into specifics would involve spoilers, but I was
impressed that she had to juggle elements of a character who has to come across
as both a romcom-style love interest and a real person who isn’t stupid.
Unfortunately,
Welcome to Marwen doesn’t quite live up to the effort that the cast and Zemeckis,
as director, put in. That’s primarily because of a screenplay (co-written by
Zemeckis and Caroline Thompson) that doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it
wants to become.
Much
like Forrest Gump, another of the filmmaker’s enormously misunderstood works,
this is a dark, disturbing story masquerading as a “feel-good” flick. Both also
have gigantic problems with their female characters: in Forrest Gump, Jenny is
slut-shamed to death, while Hogancamp puts the women in his life on pedestals –
making them heroines at the expense of their own agency and actual
personalities.
Still,
I respect that Zemeckis takes big swings with this movie even though they don’t
all connect. I’d much rather watch an interesting film that takes risks that
don’t always pay off instead of a narrative that technically succeeds by
playing it safe. Of all the movies hitting theaters over the holiday season, Welcome
to Marwen is one I’m most curious to hear audiences react to.
Welcome to Marwen is rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence, some disturbing images, brief suggestive content, thematic material and language.
Grade:
C+
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