Taglines: You çan’t put this hero in a box.
A World War II warplane piloted by a doll-like figure is hit by enemy fire and forced to ditch. The pilot’s shoes are burned in the forced landing and he finds women’s shoes, which he wears instead. The pilot is confronted by doll-like German soldiers, who taunt him for wearing women’s shoes. The Germans threaten to emasculate him, but are killed by a group of doll-like women who come to the pilot’s rescue.
As told in flashback, it’s revealed that the doll-like figures are actually modified Barbie dolls photographed by Mark Hogancamp, who has created a model village named Marwen (later renamed Marwencol) to help him deal with his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and memory loss from an attack some time earlier by white supremacists[6] after he unwisely told them about his fetish for wearing women’s shoes. Mark fantasizes that the dolls are alive and act out in scenes which he photographs.
The dolls correspond to people that he knows in real life: himself as “Cap’n Hogie”, the pilot; female friends as his protectors; and his attackers as Nazi soldiers. A green-haired doll named Deja Thoris is a witch who prevents Cap’n Hogie from becoming too close to any woman, sending the women far into the future. Deja Thoris herself represents the pills which Mark takes to relieve his pain, to which he has become addicted.
Mark has a court date to make a victim impact statement at the sentencing of the men who attacked him. After being initially reluctant to appear in court and confront his attackers, he comes to the hearing but flees when he imagines the defendants becoming Nazi soldiers and shooting at him. The judge reschedules the sentencing hearing for the same day that Mark’s photographs will be shown to the public at an art gallery.
Welcome to Marwen is a 2018 American drama film[5] directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the script with Caroline Thompson. It is inspired by Jeff Malmberg’s 2010 documentary Marwencol. The film stars Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monáe, Eiza González, Gwendoline Christie, Leslie Zemeckis, Siobhan Williams and Neil Jackson, and follows the true story of Mark Hogancamp, a man struggling with PTSD who, after having his memory erased from being physically assaulted, creates a fictional village to ease his trauma.
The film was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on December 21, 2018, and received mixed to negative reviews from critics, who criticized the tone and screenplay, although the visuals and Carell’s performance received some praise. The film was also a box office bomb, with projected losses for the studio running as much as $60 million.
Welcome to Marwen (2018)
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Steve Carell, Falk Hentschel, Matt O’Leary, Nikolai Witschl, Patrick Roccas, Eiza González, Alexander Lowe, Stefanie von Pfetten, Samantha Hum, Leslie Mann, Neil Jackson
Screenplay by: Robert Zemeckis, Caroline Thompson
Production Design by: Stefan Dechant
Cinematography by: C. Kim Miles
Film Editing by: Jeremiah O’Driscoll
Costume Design by: Joanna Johnston
Set Decoration by: Hamish Purdy
Art Direction by: Chris Beach
Music by: Alan Silvestri
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence, some disturbing images, brief suggestive content, thematic material and language.Alan Silvestri
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: December 21, 2018
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