Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen tells the story of Mark Hogancamp, an artist who loses his memory after a violent assault. As part of his recovery, he builds a miniature World War II-era Belgian village in his yard, populating it with dolls modeled on the people in his life and on himself. In this imaginary town, called Marwen, his alter ego is an American pilot protected by a group of women; through the world he creates and photographs, he works to rebuild his sense of self and reconnect with reality. The arrival of a new neighbor, Nicol, becomes part of that effort.

The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who wrote the screenplay with Caroline Thompson and produced alongside Steve Starkey and Cherylanne Martin. It is the twentieth of the twenty-three features he has directed in chronological order, following Allied and preceding Roald Dahl's The Witches. Steve Carell plays Mark Hogancamp, with Leslie Mann as Nicol, Merritt Wever as Roberta, Janelle Monáe as GI Julie, Diane Kruger as Deja Thoris and Falk Hentschel as Captain Topf and Louis. The production, mounted by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Perfect World Pictures, cost about 39 million dollars and returned roughly 13 million worldwide.

Audience response has been moderate: the film holds a 6.2 rating on IMDb from around 27,000 votes and a 6.5 on TMDB from a much smaller pool of about 1,200. A critics' score of 4.9 from 171 reviews sits below both.