Movie #1154 "When Marnie Was There" --- sounds like a dumb title,right? it IS a dumb title, I think, but the movie is just okay, yet it is nominated for an academy award in the animation category --- go figure. Weak year....esp. when "Inside Out" will probably take this category, esp. with nominations like this one. Actually, I enjoyed this story even better than inside out (but then again, I disliked "Inside Out" a lot, so that isn't saying much) but not near as well as "Shaun, the Sheep" (which is nominated for AA this year) and "The Peanuts Movie" (which, unfortunately, was not nominated!)This one starts out well enough, seems to be about dealing with being different, but then the story starts to layer, and then layer, and then layer.....when it is done, I think it would take a couple of paragraphs to explain the main story --- it's pretty involved, and then I started to wonder why? who is the demographic for this movie? I thought at first that kids would get into this story --- little girl gets sent to the country to deal with her asthma attacks --- she's a fish out of water --- a quiet girl who doesn't have a friend --- and then Marnie appears. I wasn't sure how we were to see their relationship when she puts her arms around her to help her learn to row ? was the film going in a different direction? Then, she gets invited to this big house for a party, goes back the next day and it is a deserted dilapidated building --- hmmmm? The story is all over the place ---- I kind of liked the haphazard way the story was going, but after a while, I started to feel it needed more direction to an end --- it got to an end, but it took A LOT of plot stuff in the last 10 minutes to get to it. Not my kind of story, but the characters were interesting. And I'm glad I saw it, just for a different viewing of animation (I don't watch much Japanese animation). Not being a good judge of animation, I can only say this was pretty, almost like paintings at times, but because of all the plot stuff, the looks at the environment seemed to be interrupting the story instead of enhancing it --- esp. if you work with the idea that a lot of what this girl seems is a dream --- so what's real and what isn't? So, I'm not sure what more to say about this film --- not sure who would like it --- maybe kids in the tweens? Maybe they could follow the story and get something out of this -- a possible theme that we are lucky to have our family members we can lean on and learn from, but if we are unlucky, we can still find family in others.
When Marnie Was There
2015 PG Rated PG103 mins. 3 stars out of 5
A lonely city girl with chronic asthma, Anna Sasaki is sent to spend the summer with relatives in a seaside town where the air is clean. Before long, Anna makes friends with a mysterious girl living in a deserted villa -- but is she real or a dream?
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