Welcome to Marwen (2018) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Janelle Monae, Diane Kruger, Elza Gonzalez, Leslie Zemeckis, Neil Jackson, Merritt Weaver, Gwendoline Christie

Mark Hogancamp is a harmless, friendly neighborhood illustrator whose life is forever altered when he is beaten nearly to death by five white supremacists outside a local bar one night.   The reason for the savage beating?   He utters his affinity for wearing women's shoes.    Three years after the beating, Mark has no memory of his life before the beating, but we gain some understanding through a scrapbook.    He may have once been married, but his wife is long gone, and now he attempts to heal himself through art.   Or more appropriately, lifelike action figures which bear striking resemblances to real people in his life.    Welcome to Marwen is based on a true story, and Hogancamp was the subject of a 2010 documentary titled Marwencol, and we are treated to a mostly engaging, although a bit overlong, story of a man healed by his art. 

Welcome to Marwen is two movies in one.   The first is Mark's sad daily real life, and the second is the action figure adventure in which Mark is a World War II captain battling Nazis with the help of a group of strong women in the fictional village of Marwen, Belgium.    The action figures move in nearly lifelike fashion thanks to the animation Zemeckis employed in The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol.    The strong heroic Mark of Marwen is in direct contrast to the frightened real-life Mark, who still lacks the nerve to attend the sentencing hearing of the thugs who beat him up and needs written reminders not to take too many pills at once.

Steve Carell plays Mark and provides Welcome to Marwen with a likable, sympathetic subject.   He admires the women, ranging from a co-worker to the owner of the local hobby store who clearly has a crush on him.   But, once Nicol (Mann), who spells the name without the e at the end, moves in across the street, Mark is smitten and makes her the object of his affection in his fantasies as well.  Nicol seems to like Mark well enough, and is understanding of his situation, but soon there is a heartbreaking segment in which Mark proposes to Nicol and doesn't get the answer he expects.  Mark is frozen in the kneeling position, with the engagement ring out, and can't move as Nicol explains her feelings. 

We know how things will turn out, mostly because it is already told to us in the trailers.    The late, great Roger Ebert pointed out Zemeckis' preference to practically show us the entire movie in the trailers, most notably in Cast Away in which the trailers reveal that Hanks actually escapes from the island.    Zemeckis defended the practice, likening it to a McDonald's menu.   You know what's on it before you walk in, yet you go in and buy anyway.    Does the revelation sap the ending of Welcome to Marwen of some its power?   Yes, but it is still moving, although truth be told there are maybe one or two fantasy sequences too many for my liking, which delays the inevitable breakthrough which allows Mark to face his tormentors. 

Objections aside, Welcome to Marwen is a whimsical fantasy which meshes nicely with Mark's true life difficulties.    I read a little about the real Mark Hogancamp and discovered a darker side to all of this, including his alcoholism before the beating, but that provides unnecessary distraction to Zemeckis' message.   Art finds a way to heal Mark, or at least keep him going.    As someone who knows exactly how that feels, I applaud Zemeckis for using Hogancamp as his medium for delivering that very message.