I don‘t have a problem with his cross-dressing. I don’t have a problem with his playing with dolls. I have a big problem with his objectification. Biopics in 2018 ranged from Lizzie Borden to Freddie Mercury, but perhaps none was more unique than the story of PTSD victim Mark Hogancamp, who turned his trauma into the fictional WWII besieged town of Marwen, which exists entirely within his backyard … well, sideyard as it turns out and a bit of the main house.
In the year 2000, Hogancamp spent nine days in a coma. The reason? He confessed in a bar to being a cross-dresser. A select group of scared little men attacked him for it. The attack was so vicious it left Mark without memories. In piecing back his life, he created the “Belgian” town of Marwen where his alter ego, downed American WWII pilot Cap’n Hogie, is captured and beaten by Nazis on a daily basis. Hogie is subsequently rescued by the Marwen residents, a collection of GI Barbies. Hence, his entire life is essentially recreating Sucker Punch in doll form and showing it to audiences.
In lieu of genuine health care and a team of psychologists, Marwen is Mark’s therapeutic retreat. Although, Mark isn’t quite a shut-in, he lives alone, plays alone, and panics alone. Wherever he goes, he trails his toys behind him like a small child carting a doll in a mini stroller. He needs help. He gets dolls.
The film opens with a typical day in this WWII scene: Hogie crashes his flying tiger, leaps from the plane unscathed although his shoes have been burned right off his feet. Well, whatchagonnado? Spotting a vehicle down the road, he investigates and finds a suitcase full of women’s clothing. Hogie, who is basically a Ken Doll with the face of Steve Carell, stops to put a pair of stylish era-friendly black & white pumps on his bare feet. This is as far as the cross dressing goes in Welcome to Marwen, btw; it’s only shoes, and it’s only on Mark’s animated avatar, never on real Mark. Gosh, way to make a statement, Robert Zemeckis. I see, Mark is a “cross dresser” not a cross dresser; yeah, A Fantastic Woman has nothing on you.
Hogie is, of course, caught, ridiculed by Nazis, tortured, and saved by his leggy friends. They’re all female, they’re all pro-Hogie, they all represent people in Mark Hogancamp’s life, and I think it’s fair to say they’re Hogie’s harem of a sort. I mean, how else do you define a group of women who live entirely to serve one man? The main problem with Welcome to Marwen is this split dichotomy between a man I want to love and his fictional world which I do not. Adding to that is Mark’s disturbing inability to discern fiction from reality, exacerbated by his new neighbor, Nicol (Leslie Mann). Nicol has barely crossed the threshold of her new house when Mark’s already bought and outfitted the Nicol doll resident of Marwen. Hence, while I have endless empathy for Mark, I have barely any sympathy for him; to love this biopic, I think I need both.
Welcome to Marwen is certainly a unique vision; it gets uniquer still when a flying DeLorean shows up in Marwen. Yeah, don’t ask. At least Zemeckis is stealing from himself, I guess. Couldn’t you steal from Forrest Gump? That one seems a tad more relevant, no? Or, if you’re gonna bother stealing at all, why not have some sort of Nazi Verner Klemperer address “Hogie” as “Hogan!?” It wouldn’t have made the film any better, but it would have made more sense.
You can carjack and take his wheels
You can starve ‘til his liver congeals
But word to the wise
If jail you despise
Never hit a man in high heels
Rated PG-13, 116 Minutes
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writer: Robert Zemeckis (screenplay by), Caroline Thompson
Genre: Therapy in film form
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: LGTBQ victims of hate crimes
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People desperate to understand why the DeLorean from Back to the Future ended up in WWII Belgium
