Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

"When Marnie Was There" is a strikingly beautiful animated feature from the renowned Studio Ghibli. Based on a British novel of the same name, the story follows Anna, a troubled teenager who finds friendship and ultimately revelation in Marnie, a mysterious young girl who seems to live both in Anna's world and in her dreams. Like all Ghibli productions, the animation is lush, detailed and fluid. The voice work in the English version I watched is good despite being somewhat flat and generic at times. I very much like Studio Ghibli movies but find in general that anime adds more to fantasy films (where it can make unreal real, such as "Howl's Moving Castle" or "Spirited Away") than it does to more 'realistic' films such as "When Marnie Was There". Despite that, and being both the wrong gender and decades away from the target audience, I really enjoyed, and would recommend, "When Marnie Was There".

The opening sections of Omoide no Mânî get the film off to a very good start. Primarily this is off the back of how interesting Anna is as a character; she is not amazingly new in her teenage struggles perhaps, but they seem genuine, informed, and they show on her surface in a way that speaks to a lot more happening that is buried. With Anna as the base, the slow pace of the film did not bother me too much because I was interested enough in her to trust the film as it took us to a new community, set-up some interactions and the mystery of the mansion across the swamp.This doesn't last unfortunately, and the film doesn't built on that character so much as sit on the potential. There is a certain engagement in the way the mystery plays out and what Marine leads the film to. However as it goes it asks a lot but doesn't deliver too much; again one goes with this on the trust that it will be something the character deserves. I found it far too neat and tidy when we got there though, and the aspects that Anna indicated early on are sort of simplified more than I liked. It still offers something as it goes, but the destination didn't satisfy.Along the way it is as visually stunning as you expect, and it is as professionally constructed as the norm – but when it moved from an engaging reality into the more fantasy realm I expected it to soar with this as its base, however the pat nature of the conclusion rather grounds it instead.

I found out about this Japanese cartoon movie, from Studio Ghibli, mainly because of its inclusion in the Oscar nominations, I was always going to watch this, both to see if I agree with this accolade, and as a fan of many films from the studio. Basically shy 12-year-old Anna Sasaki (Hailee Steinfeld) lives with her foster parents, Yoriko (Geena Davis) and her husband, in Sapporo, she is distant and unhappy, for health reasons she is sent to spend the summer with Yoriko's relatives, Setsu (Grey Griffin) and Kiyomasa Oiwa (John C. Reilly), in a rural seaside town. While there, Anna is fascinated by an abandoned mansion, dilapidated and overgrown, across the marsh, she wonders why it seems familiar to her, it has been empty for a long time, but Anna has visions of the house looking well and people residing in it. One night, following an argument, Anna runs away, she finds a boat and rows across to the mansion, there she is greeted by beautiful, good-natured blonde girl Marnie (Kiernan Shipka), Anna tells her about her dreams, but Marnie assures her she is not dreaming now, they agree to keep meeting in secret, but the next day, when Anna plans to see Marnie, the mansion has returned to its abandoned and dilapidated state. A week later, while sketching, Anna meets older woman Hisako (Vanessa Williams) who paints pictures of the mansion and marsh, she comments that Anna's sketches look like a girl she used to know when she was young, and she used to live in the mansion, which is being renovated for someone moving in. Anna returns to the mansion, she meets a girl named Sayaka (Ava Acres), she discovers Marnie's diary in a drawer, it includes text about a party Anna may have been part of, several pages of the diary are missing. The next day, Marnie reappears and talks to Anna about her parents always travelling abroad, her nanny and two maids and their physical and psychological abuse, Anna wants to help her confront her fear of the silo, where she used to be threatened of being locked in, Anna falls asleep, and is upset to find Marnie has abandoned her in the silo. Meanwhile, Sayaka and her brother finds the missing diary pages, including mention of the silo, they find Anna there in a feverish state, during which she dreams of confronting Marnie, who apologises for leaving her, and telling her she can no longer see her, Marnie begs Anna for forgiveness, Anna vows to remember Marnie as she is swept away by the tide. Anna recovers from her fever, Sayaka shows her the missing pages and a painting Hisako gave to Marnie, Hisako tells them Marnie's story. Marnie married Kazuhiko, who died from an illness, they had a daughter named Emily, Marnie was committed to a psychiatric hospital and Emily was sent to boarding school, when Marnie was released Emily was upset for her abandoning her, she ran away and had a daughter of her own, she and her husband were killed in a car accident, Marnie raised her granddaughter until her death, the girl was put in foster care. It is the end of summer, Yoriko is taking Anna home, she gives Anna a photograph of the mansion that belonged to her grandmother, she realises she is the daughter of Emily and Marnie's granddaughter, this revelation brings Anna closure of her identity, she bids her friends of the town goodbye, and sees the mansion and Marnie one last time as she is taken back home. Also starring Catherine O'Hara as the Elderly Lady, Ellen Burstyn as Nanny and Kathy Bates as Mrs. Kadoya. The cast dubbing the voices into English are all chosen well, it is a fairly simple story of a pubescent tomboy girl unknowingly going back in time to meet the younger version of her relative, it is perhaps more realistic than previous films from the studio, no magical and fantasy elements as such, it hasn't got quite the same charm as these other films, but the animation is fantastic, overall its not a bad animated drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Worth watching!

I don't know what it is about Ghibli recently, but I have been so amazingly bored with their recent movies. The Wind Rises, From Up on Poppy Hill, and now When Marnie was there.Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE Ghibli movies. Kiki's delivery service, the Cat Returns, and Castle in the Sky are some of my favorite movies of all time. However, this one, I sadly have to say, it is the ONLY ghibli movie I have ever shut off halfway through due to boredom.I don't know what it is about recent Ghibli movie and their aversion to using magic, but it doesn't help their cause.Ghibli unfortunately is like every other studio. They are not infallible. They make mistakes.The biggest issue I found with this movie is that the main character is an annoying little whiner. Every problem she has in the movie is due to her being a whiner. (except for the asthma) She goes to the new place, and she's mopey. People try to make friends with her, and she's a jerk and mopey again. Then when the kids in town get annoyed at her for being a jerk, I think the movie is trying to get you to feel bad for her? But I can't. Every single time something bad happens it is entirely her fault. The first half of this movie was just a test of patience to see if you didn't punch this girl in the face. Then Marnie shows up but the problem is, you hate the other girl so much by that point you don't even care if she makes a friend. I sure didn't.Ghibli's music and animation are never brought into question. No matter how terrible their movie is the art and music are always breathtaking. That doesn't change. But the main character was so unlikable, there was a lack of overt use of magic or wonder, and I did not give a single care about the story this girl went through as every single problem created was of her own doing.I actually read the ending of the movie on wiki because I just felt like knowing how it ended but I didn't want to invest more than 30 seconds doing so. And I still don't care.I do not like some Ghibli movies. I know this may sound blasphemous, but I just can't get into some. However, on the flip side, some of them are breathtakingly amazing. But I have NEVER shut one off halfway through before. That is something amazing all in itself. Tales from Earthsea and from Up on Poppy Hill are BAD but I didn't shut them off halfway through. Because as bad as they were, at least they weren't BORING. And that is the greatest sin a ghibli movie could have. So it with a heavy heart that I have to give When Marnie was there, a 3, out of 10.