Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger
Runtime: 116 minutes

Synopsis: A victim of a brutal attack finds a unique and beautiful therapeutic outlet to help him through his recovery process.

Performances: 6/10
Screenplay: 3/10
Special Effects: 9/10
Costumes/Makeup: 5/10
Editing: 7/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Score/Soundtrack: 4/10

Verdict: It's no secret that Robert Zemeckis' career has been filled with both great movies ("Forrest Gump", "Flight", "Cast Away") and not-so-great ones ("Allied", "Beowulf"). I'd put his latest project about the true story of a man suffering from PTSD and dealing with it in a very unconventional way in the second category, despite not finding it be as disastrous as its Rotten Tomato score make it out to be (currently standing at 33%, making it Zemeckis' worst reviewed film).

The movie is kind of divided into two storylines: one taking place in the imaginary world created by Mark Hogancamp as a way to cope with a traumatic event that affected him deeply, and the other taking place in the real world. Elevated by some of last year's best visual effects, I very much enjoyed watching the scenes taking place in Marwen, which is the name of Hogancamp's imaginary town populated by dolls given life by the victim's imagination. My issues with the film lie rather with the scenes that take place in the real world, which constitute more than half of the film's runtime and that more than once dragged more than they probably should've. These scenes mostly suffered from a lot of exposition, cheese and a romance that didn't feel genuine at all. Steve Carell is fine in the lead role but doesn't come close to showing the potential he has shown in the past few years since he switched from being a comedic actor to focusing more on dramatic roles. The film is also decently shot but is unfortunately made rather bland by the extremely dull score.

"Welcome to Marwen" is far from being Zemeckis' best work, but still manages to offer interesting aspects especially in the visual effects department. I wouldn't call Mark Hogancamp's biography bad, but it's most certainly frustrating.

FINAL GRADE: 5/10