Welcome to Marwen                     4 stars

Welcome to Marwen from director Robert Zemeckis employs some very imaginative techniques to tell the story of Mark Hogencamp (Steve Carell), an illustrator who lost his memory after being beaten by some local thugs.  Having lost his drawing talent Mark has created a fantasy world made up of miniatures dolls and models in an imaginary town in Brussels during World War II.  Mark has an alter ego named Hoagie represented by an American airman doll who frequently takes on Nazi soldiers aided by some very courageous women who make up the town’s population.  Each of the women figures represents a woman who plays a part in Mark’s life.  Mark lives alone outside of town and seems to be a broken man, but he manages to stay connected to people through his town called Marwen which he photographs creating intricate stories about his characters.  I found the movie quite engaging with the way it moves from the fantasy world to reality and how the events in Marwen are related to things going on in Mark’s real world.  The special effects are well done using stop action photography and animation to create some great action sequences.  The story is based on the actual true events of Mark Hogencamp who created this imaginary world and became famous through exhibitions of his photography.  I found the movie uplifting and entertaining which apparently most movie critics don’t see based on the mostly negative reviews it has been getting.  Robert Zemeckis has been making movies for ages and I am sure most viewers have seen some which includes Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away and Forrest Gump.  In my opinion he has another winner that more people should be seeing.