Looking swell, dollies

The visuals are not the problem in this mushy retelling of a true tale

AS well as being famous for such hits as Forrest Gump and Back to the Future, Robert Zemeckis has a reputation as an early adopter when it comes to high-tech moviemaking. Not that it has done him a lot of good. The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, all ahead of their time experiments with performance capture – in which actors are blended with their computer-generated characters – looked just plain weird.

The true story of artist Mark Hogancamp, whose recovery from a vicious beating involved him creating the fictional Belgian town of Marwen and populating it with dolls that he then photographed, seemed ideally suited to Zemeckis. A case of cometh the story, cometh the man with the (by now refined) technology.

The two duly turn out to be a winning match. The problem this time is caused by tone rather than tech, and in particular an excess of schmaltz.

Zemeckis begins by running the legend “based on a true story” on the screen before cutting to a doll version of Steve Carell flying a plane over Belgium during the Second World War. Meet Cap’n Hogie, the alter ego of Hogancamp.

After crash landing, the captain goes in search of help but is discovered by a Nazi patrol. Just when it looks like his time is up, a miracle occurs in the shape of five machine gun-toting female dolls who make quick work of the Nazis.

Thus the stage is set for the continuing adventures of Hogie and his “dames”. Hogancamp’s Marwen, built in his backyard, looks like a model village, complete with painstakingly detailed interiors.

It is not just Hogancamp who has a fictional avatar. The five dames represent significant women in his life, albeit in highly sexualised form, including Anna, his Russian care assistant (Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones) and his friend Roberta (Merritt Wever).

Between medication and Marwen, Hogancamp tries to find a way back from the beating that wiped out most of