“When Marnie Was There” is a story of friendship, memory and self-discovery. It draws you into its world imperceptibly but inexorably, like the tide, the way the best books (and movies) do. The film feels like a great summer read: languid yet not un-urgent. Over the course of this meticulously constructed tale, which unpacks its secrets like a watchmaker taking apart a timepiece, Anna comes out of her shell, learns about Marnie and discovers something about her own past. That, and her oddly decades-out-of-fashion wardrobe.

That Marnie lives in a mansion thought to be vacant, if not haunted, is our first sign that the mysterious blond girl is not all that she appears to be. Reilly and Grey Griffin) - from whom Anna feels disengaged, as she does from almost everyone - Anna meets a girl close to her age named Marnie (Kiernan Shipka). While staying with Yoriko’s relatives (John C. There, among the ducks and dramatic tides, our reclusive 12-year-old orphan heroine Anna (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) has been sent, as a form of asthma therapy, by her foster mother Yoriko (Geena Davis).

Robinson’s 1967 book from coastal England to a marshy inlet outside Sapporo, Japan. With its latest release - a non-spooky ghost story set in a seaside fishing village - the Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli has once again created a world where magic and imagination don’t just rule but are transformative.ĭirected and co-written by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (“ The Secret World of Arrietty”), “Marnie” shifts the action of British author and illustrator Joan G. There is a quality of enchantment to “ When Marnie Was There” that can’t be faked, and that the studio behind this animated feature is justifiably famous for.

Ghibli when marnie was there