Trailer
Genres
Summary
Thoughts
Like most of Studio Ghibli's films, the story unravels as the main character goes to a new place. We follow Anna as she moves to the countryside to get away from the city for a while and have some time to reconnect with herself. As the audience we come to learn quite early on in the film that Anna is suffering from depression. She simply hates herself and feels isolated from the world around her. She wants to have friends but whenever she tries to make friends she always ends up 'scaring' them away. Like when she tried to make friends with the countryside girls at the lantern festival, she ended up insulting one of the girls and hurting her feelings instead. Likewise, the film focuses on Anna making her first friend. She meets Marnie at a large mansion across the water where she sketches. Marnie seems strange at first and a bit mysterious, but despite that they become great friends. What I love about the friendship between Marnie and Anna is that they don't have to know everything about each other to be friends. They accept and support each other. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I love how the filmmakers use this bone-chilling technique of adding in mystery to the movie. The feeling of being at the edge of your seat and wanting to know more as the mystery slowly unravels. As the movie progressed, Anna had to solve the mystery of who Marnie really was. During this process we see Anna trying to piece together all the clues, but at the same time we see Anna piecing herself together and really finding out who she really is as a person as well. By the end of the movie, Anna comes to love herself and we get to see the profound character development of Anna and Marnie.
Nonetheless, the movie definitely demonstrated some powerful techniques involving mystery and meaningful lessons as well. It was a refreshing change for a Studio Ghibli film to follow the story of an isolated character trying to find her place in the world by unlocking the mysteries her past and trying new things. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who knows someone with depression or suffers from it themselves as it really helped me confront a friend who had depression. When a person has depression, they can feel similar to how Anna felt at the beginning of the movie. She felt lost, isolated, alone, and different from everyone else. She lacked self-confidence and energy to keep trying to make new friends, but with the help of Marnie, she learned to love herself in the end and really break away from her past. Overall, it was an excellent film!
What is Redemption?
At the beginning of the film, we see the protagonist, Anna, as a reclusive and introverted person struggling to find the confidence to fit in with others and love herself. However, as the movie progresses we see Anna's character develop into a confident person that can put others before herself. We also see her become more enthusiastic in her everyday life. She becomes excited to help her Aunt pick tomatoes, and go sketching in the field by the marsh. She starts to look forward to and cherish each day without even realizing that she's slowly breaking away from her depression. She learns to make friends and reconnect with her family as well.
Marnie plays a big role in Anna's development. Once Anna meets Marnie, everything changes. When Anna is with Marnie, she feels as if she can do anything: she feels confident in herself and loved. Marnie teaches Anna to value and love herself and she motivates Anna to strive forward in her everyday life. Anna also learns to forgive herself for the mistakes she's made in the past involving shutting herself off from her peers and especially her foster mother. She also forgave herself for being mean to the countryside girls. She apologized to them and even became friends with them towards the end of the film. Anna's character developed so much throughout the course of the movie and it was really refreshing to see her become so happy, confident and content!
Were All Characters Redeemed?
Now, I don't want to cover the entire movie here, so I'll just get to the point. Anna's grandmother had a daughter (Anna's biological mother) at a young age and when her husband died in an accident, Marnie and her daughter barely spoke to each other anymore. They blamed each other for his death and essentially grew apart from each other causing the daughter to move away. Once the daughter grew older and had a child of her own, named Anna, Marnie got to reunite with her daughter and even look after Anna. Unfortunately, after a car accident, Anna's biological parents passed away leaving Marnie to look after Anna. However, Marnie passed away soon after that as well due to old age leaving Anna up for adoption. Basically, Marnie never got the chance to apologize to her daughter after they reunited, so the only way Marnie could forgive/redeem herself was to look after Anna. The movie also follows the story of Marnie's ghost reconnecting with Anna in order to help her unlock her past and discover who she really is. It may seem complicated, however, once you watch the movie, it will all be easy to grasp and make sense. All this aside, what makes Marnie so incredible is how she changes Anna's perspective of life. Overall, there is a profound, and eventful redemption theme in this film involving the relationships between Anna and Marnie as well as Anna forgiving herself and discovering who she really is.