Review of Marwencol (2010) by Kris V — 16 Jul 2011

Cerebral, well-done, but certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

After being beaten into a coma during a bar-room brawl in Kingston, New York, Mark Hogancamp struggles to live with his mental incapacities by obsessively creating and photographing Marwencol, a battle-torn WWII town. Marwencol springs solely from Hogancamp's imagination, he populates it with scenes filled with Barbies and G.I.Joes-ever so intricately detailed, decorated and dressed-and photographs them. As the film progresses, the viewer continues to discover just how tightly Hogancamp's past and present life is woven into the fictitious events within Marwencol.

If nothing else, the film demonstrates that Hogancamp has developed an amazingly strong talent in the composition of, and the realistic photography of, miniatures. His camera work certainly deserved some kind of exhibition, as it did indeed eventually receive. The close look-see at all this photography, and the incredible detail within it, makes for quality viewing time on its own.

The film is also likely to amaze budding psychologists, in that it shows just how incredibly creative the mind can be when it attempts to ensure its own self-preservation. Though his mental functioning is severely damaged, Hogancamp's mind invents this Marwencol pathway to attempt to continue to accomplish its normal goals and functionings.

Example: Hogancamp knows enough to know he can't likely woo his attractive next-door neighbor in any conventional manner, so Hogancamp has her Marwencol alter-ego wooed by HIS Marwencol alter-ego. Hogancamp's subconscious is gaming that the projection - the Marwencol goings-on of which the neighbor is well aware - will accomplish the wooing. It doesn't, hence Hogancamp's mind must find a defense mechanism. So the Marwencol story line evolves so that Hogancamp's Marwencol alter-ego simply finds another Marwencol girlfriend. Problem solved.

Another example: The outcome in Marwencol for Hogancamp and the bar-room brawl he has with Nazi attackers, of course, has a very different outcome than what happened during his bar-room brawl in Kingston.

RECOMMENDATION: This film was extraordinarily well received by the critics and rightfully so. It took the filmmaker nearly five years to make it happen and the result is a thoughtful product. And for a certain type of viewer it will be fascinating content. But if it doesn't sound as though it will fascinate you, well then, it almost certainly won't.