Welcome to Marwen Movie Review
3.5 out of 5
Man, when I saw the trailer for this movie, I could not wipe the smile off of my face. Steve Carell in a comedic role is just in tune with my soul. Combine that with Robert Zemeckis (of Forrest Gump fame), and I thought this might be a movie that could sneak up and steal some money from all the big hitters at the box office over Christmas.
Based on the true story of Mark Hogancamp, “Welcome to Marwen,” starts off in great fashion. As you can tell from the movie poster or trailer (if you’ve seen it), Steve Carell’s character uses dolls to capture art — but also escape into a world where he is a hero, loved and adored by all, while fighting off Nazis during World War II, in the kingdom of Belgium, in the little town of Marwen.
The movie opens with our hero in a WWII plane evading fire, when he is eventually hit, and has to crash land. After surviving the crash landing, Captain Hogie, as he is known, must navigate through hostile territory to survive. As he’s walking along a street, he comes upon a crashed vehicle that has a suitcase in it with women’s clothing, and a pair of beautiful high heels. Captain Hogie marvels at the shoes, and swaps them out for his shoes which caught on fire during the crash. Not long after, he runs into a group of Nazi soldiers, who upon seeing the shoes begin to laugh and savagely beat him — and when it appears our hero is about to meet his end, a group of stunning women, loaded to the teeth with guns and ammo — step in to save Hogie and kill the Nazis. This proves to be the impetus of why Mark Hogancamp takes pictures of the dolls and escapes reality with his imaginary story of Captain Hogie, his dames and the village of Marwen. As the film unfolds, we learn more about Mark Hogancamp, who he is and why he is obsessed with taking pictures of his dolls, along with the friends in his life, who also are alter egos in Marwen.
While the movie was not the second coming of “Forrest Gump” as I was hoping it might be, it is still a lot of fun and heartwarming as well. Coming out on Christmas day, it’s likely that it will be lost in the shuffle of other movies all fighting for a top spot on the money list. But that somehow also fits with the story and feel of this movie. It’s an underdog, just like the real-life Mark Hogancamp, and it will still do a fine job of making its way. The highlights of the film are when the dolls are in action. When Steve Carell is Captain Hogie with his dames in Marwen — the movie soars. If it weren’t for this being based on a true story, I could have watched a whole movie about the Captain and his plight. On the other hand, Carell is fantastic when he is Mark Hogancamp in real life as well. I always wondered if I would just see him as Michael Scott from “The Office,” for the rest of his career. And while that still pops into my mind from time to time when seeing him, it’s happening less and less, which talks to the true voracity of Steve Carell’s talent. If he can make you forget a character like the great Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin — the man has chops (even if Captain Hogie did remind me of Michael Scarn from time to time).
Most people will be busy opening presents, having parties and eating dinner this Holiday season. And if they do pop into a local theater, they’ll likely jump in line to see “Aquaman” or another larger film, but they’d do well to visit Marwen too. This film has heart and Mark Hogancamp is a character you can truly root for.
“Welcome to Marwen” is in theaters now, and is rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence, some disturbing images, brief suggestive content, thematic material and language.
