A Beautiful Friendship and Family Tale: When Marnie was There

Synopsis

Anna Sasaki is a quiet and unsociable young girl who has caused much worry for her foster parents over her being isolated by her peers. Under the recommendation of the doctor, the family travels to the countryside where Anna may hopefully have a more relaxing lifestyle and the clean air may improve her health and clear her mind. One day while wandering outside, Anna discovers the Marsh House, an abandoned mansion where she encounters a mysterious girl named Marnie. As Anna begins to befriend the bubby and mysterious girl, Anna son learns that there is more to Marnie and the Marsh House where she lives.

The Good

As a work that held the Studio Ghibli name to it, a lot of expectations was to be found with the film. In the progression of the work, it’s clear that the biggest highlight to be found is on the relationship between Anna and Marnie. Of course, the art and animation is as wonderful as always, but it was really on the emotional and there was just a tenderness and depth to it that just gave different layers to the film. More than the relationship between the characters however is their development.

The development of Anna particularly is very interesting given how she’s introduced as this prickly and emotional teen who just suddenly bursts off, which in hindsight, give her a large realistic point to her which makes her different from previous protagonists. Still, in terms of emotional and character work, the film works wonderfully. Just the way that it builds itself up towards the climax and connected both the past and the present was clever in many ways.

The Bad

For all the emotional depth and relationship development, the film’s beginning and end were not the strongest nor the greatest. The same can be said on the ending, specifically, Marnie’s story and how she came to be Anna’s caretaker, not only is it a type of story that has been told before but it is one that is personally at this point, rather redundant and cliché. With the beginning the main issue lied with Anna’s personality development. While it was well done in the middle of the film, her portrayal was better done, her whole prickly teenager introduction came off a bit much in certain parts and when it came to the meeting the two characters, there were just a few questions that should have been made at least after.

On the note of the two main characters, again the relationship between the two was rather well done in the middle progression of the series but towards the beginning and the way it was portrayed left a lot of very light but suggestive notes to it before it backpedalled towards the end. Still, there was a lot of open notes to be found and good climax, so in the bigger picture, it is honestly the beginning and ending that could have been done better.

Conclusion

Good art, good animation and a solid character development, all mixed with a largely heartfelt story is the most to enjoy with the film. But in equal measure to the good there is an equal measure of bad to be found with the film, though not very large in hindsight. There could have been panning out in terms of framework and backstory of the characters. The emotional moments worked for the most part but there were also moments that it just seemed to miss the mark. So as a film that took on the theme of family and learning the past of one, it did rather well, but it could have done better if there was a better flow to the middle and a more creative backstory.

Rating: 8/10