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Tonight HBO airs Welcome to Marwen, a 2018 drama starring Steve Carell that—as much as I love and respect Carell—wasn’t really my cup of tea. Based on the box office numbers and largely negative critical reception toward the film, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis who also co-wrote the script with Caroline Thompson, a lot of people shared my less-than-favorable feelings. Don’t let that stop you from checking the film on HBO if you’re interested in it, but do make sure you also watch the documentary that inspired it, Marwencol.
Marwencol is a beautiful little documentary from director Jeff Malmberg that came out in 2010, and it’s available to stream in several places: On Sundance Now, if you have a subscription; on Kanopy, for free if your library partners with the streaming service; or perhaps most easily, on iTunes, where you can rent the film for $3.99 or buy it for $12.99. The film follows the life of Mark Hogancamp (played by Carell in Welcome to Marwen), an artist and photographer who, in 2000, was badly beaten by five men after they found out he enjoyed cross-dressing.
Even if he hadn’t slipped into a coma and suffered memory-altering brain damage from the attack, that’s the kind of traumatic event that would require serious therapy to work through. Unfortunately for Hogancamp, he couldn’t afford serious therapy. Instead, he created an incredibly detailed miniature town he dubbed Marwencol: a to-scale model of a WWII-era Belgian town, populated by life-like dolls he modeled after himself and his friends to work through his trauma. It’s hard to call it an inspiring story: It’s sweet at times, but the way Hogancamp strips down dolls that based on real women he knows and writes himself love stories with them can be uncomfortable. But Hogancamp himself is a magnificently dynamic doc subject, compelling in a way that even Carell couldn’t reproduce.
It’s not a perfect documentary—the decision to leave Hogancamp’s penchant for cross-dressing as a third-act reveal detracts slightly from the narrative—but it is a fascinating and poignant watch that deserves your attention. Whether you like Welcome to Marwen or not, seek out Marwencol ASAP.
