There is no denying that When Marnie was there is a gorgeous film, with a beautiful soundtrack and every frame a painting. But that's about all it's good for. Take away the lovely animation and the brilliant composition, then all that's left is a dull and mediocre story.My main problem is the main character, Anna. As someone with asthma myself, I must say she is not only unrelatable, but also unlikable. Poor, poor Anna. You're born into a gorgeous middle- class family, have two loving guardians, have people who want to befriend you despite your empty and soulless personality. It must be terrible living in such a beautiful, hundred-acre house with a garden and surrounded by mountains, lakes and forests. Unbearable, I say. What's that, you immediately dislike a girl you didn't know other than the fact that she looks 'ugly and fat'? You insulted her as well, after an attempt to be your friend? Gosh, I can't imagine how miserable I would be if I were her. Then you meet a pretty rich blond girl and you instantly become friends? That's cool.First of all, can we really say Anna is a role model for girls? Doesn't she just inspire you with her boringness? She is constantly depressed and humourless, not to mention emotionless most of the time. This girl lives a sheltered, well-provided life and she's bitching about it because her foster parents are getting child benefits. She's never faced a single true hardship about life, not even her sickness. It doesn't serve to empower her will to live by the end, only as an excuse for her to come to beautiful countryside hide-out that's the setting of the movie.I feel like all the movie's good for is for viewers to admire the breathtaking animation. Take that away and this is just another hollow movie with no real drive, tension or plot. Overpraised is what I would say.

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE is a sweet and touching family drama from those gifted animators at Studio Ghibli. The story involves a lonely young girl who goes to live with her aunt and becomes entranced by an abandoned old mansion by a lake. She soon befriends a young blonde-haired girl living there and the two develop a friendship, but mystery remains regarding her new friend's identity. As with many recent Ghibli films, this one's set in a recognisable real world and is less fantasy-oriented than their older classics. It's sublimely made, as always, and features a plot which layers on the emotion and feelings until the final, moving twist.

I tend to watch everything produced by Ghibli because their movies are astounding: the glorious artistic animation, the magic lighting, the wonderful colors, the picturesque landscaping, the attention to the detail, the way they capture daily life no matter the stories happen in urban or rural settings. Besides, the people at Ghibli do spend as much time on drawing the movie as on creating the story and developing the characters. Their stories are always a mix of the mundane and the celestial, the worldly and the dreamy, the ordinary and the extraordinary in life, the matter of fact and the inexplicable. Ghibli's movies are always sentimental, emotional, dramatic and fun, all at once.When Marnie was There is no exception. The film is based on Joan G. Robinson's children eponymous book published in 1967. The story is really lovely, and goes in a full circle to explore the feelings of alienation, angst, lovelessness and loneliness of the main character, Anna, a tomboy girl who hates herself and her life and has bouts of asthma out of stress. Most of the story occurs in her relatives' country house, where Anna's auntie and foster mother sends her to see if she recovers her health and joy for life. There, in this remote and pristine area of Japan, in an abandoned house, she meets the almost-Disney girly girl blonde Marnie, who becomes her best friend and does the miracle of opening Anna's heart to love. Kids and teens who experience this sense of abandonment, loneliness and alienation, will certainly connect with Anna's struggle to be herself, to open up and overcome her fear of rejection, and to opening to love, romantic and non romantic. Adults will love the magic realism of the film, the inexplicable synchronicity that leads to the end, and the overall spicy sweetness of the story. My mixed feelings about the film rely on the apparently queer relationship of the two teens. This wouldn't be a problem if the story didn't end as it ends, or the story was one with explicit queer love. I haven't read the book, so I don't know whether the relationship was expressed the same in the novel or not, but it was a distraction for me. For young queers trying to find their identity and fit in the world, the film will be a thrill, but for those who aren't it will be mostly a what-is-this-doing-here? moment. If Ghibli wanted to explore that part, great, no problem, but if that is the case I expect the story to be open about it, clearer about it, the characters to be related differently and the movie to end differently. I think part of the problem with the lack of success of the film it is just the apparent lack of inner congruency.I felt that Sayaka was a wonderful character to explore, but we barely get to know her. The same can be said about Anna's hosts the Oiwa, who are truly a funny interesting couple, and of the character of Marnie's childhood friend and paintress Oisako. On the other hand, the story is mostly an exploration of Anna's character, and the film does so perfectly well.Overall, this is a beautiful movie to watch with many layers of meaning and interpretation. Not a movie for children unless under supervision, and more for young adults and adults.

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.