Review of Welcome to Marwen (2018) by Ryan%20 D — 24 Jan 2019

Welcome to Marwen is well intentioned, but ultimately doesn't pan out. Marwen is based on the documentary Marwencol, which showcased the story of an artist who was beaten savagely by a group of men to the point of amnesia. He recovered by creating a WWII era model village complete with period buildings, Waffen SS dolls, himself as a GI, and a group of female dolls who represented women in his life. He took pictures and created scenes which were later displayed in art galleries. It was far more bizarre and graphic than what is shown in this movie. And that leads us to the central problem. Robert Zemeckis opts for a whimsical and off-beat feature, which ends up being kind of weird and awkward. It's a bit similar to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was also an existentialist Oscar-bait film with trippy fantasy sequences that ended up falling flat.

Steve Carell has proven to be a decent dramatic actor but his work here is pretty average. Leslie Mann does alright, and the same would go for the rest of the female supporting cast, but it all doesn't amount to much. There are fun sequences in which WWII themed dolls shoot and stab each other (which is probably the best aspect of the movie) but the rest is pretty plodding and predictable. This really needed to be a darker film with a hard look at loneliness, depression, and addiction, which it only lazily glances at on occasion. Stream it for the moments I mentioned before, but I can't recommend spending money or too much time on this misfire. Check out the documentary instead.