Welcome to Marwen

The latest Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forest Gump, Castaway)-penned/directed feature isn’t like most mainstream movies out there currently. It’s odd, it’s tense, it’s hard to watch at times, but at least it’s somewhat original. It’s based on the extremely interesting 2010 documentary Marwencol, which tells the story of Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell plays Hogancamp in the dramatized movie), who after being severely beaten and hospitalized creates an unusual form of therapy for himself – an imaginary 1/6th scale WWII-era town in his backyard. While movies have been saturated with Steve Carell roles lately (Beautiful Boy, Vice and now Marwen), this is the perfect Carell vehicle; he shines here in his best performance out of his recent roles. Zemeckis delivers in both of his usually great wheelhouses as well: decent storytelling and wonderful special effects. Still, the tone of the movie is a little nerve-rattling/anxiety-triggering throughout – but that feels quite deliberate. This movie is not for everyone. It’s not a crowd-pleaser. Many folks aren’t going to get this movie or like it all, but don’t let that dissuade you from checking it out.

[PG-13]