MovieChat Forums > Omoide no Marnie (2015) Discussion > Marnie *Spoilers*

Marnie Spoilers

posted 9 years ago by The_Scarecrow
14 replies | jump to latest

Loved the film and I understood who Marnie was before it was revealed but I was not 100% understanding what was actually happening when Anna and Marnie were interacting. To me it could be one of several possibilities:

- Marnie is only in Anna's imagination made from her past memories
- Marnie is a ghost(that can touch Anna?)
- Anna has a mental problem that makes her hallucinate Marnie
- Marnie is real and the child version is stuck in a time loop and can only travel in an "inner circle" but only Anna can make her physically appear in that circle.

I need to watch it again and maybe the dubbed version makes it more clear but did they ever say what Marnie was? And if not what did you think she was?

"Come in, dispatch. Send more paramedics."

[–] MagicMikassa 9 years ago

I don't think the movie ever tries to explain all the scenes of Marnie with Anna and I like to believe that is an intentional decision so that the audience can make their own conclusions. I don't know what happens in the novel it is based on, but that is a separate thing.

Anyway, I think of the scenes with Marnie as more in Anna's head. I think that maybe she is just remembering stories that Marnie told her or that she experienced, but she was so young when they were told or when they happened that she forgot where they came from. So, the memories of those stories are there in her head somewhere and are coming back to the surface without any of the context of where they came from.

That's just my current thought. I think it is up to the viewer to decide what was going on as I didn't find anything in the movie to give a concrete answer. I like it that way.

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[–] uruseiranma 9 years ago

I was still trying to figure out given how distant Anna is, why she chooses to become fascinated with Marnie. Marnie seems so boisterous and lively, which is something that Anna does not embrace from her relations or schoolmates...and yet, Marnie is so forward, that I'm surprised she doesn't shrink away from her more often.

"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."

- Toy Story 3 (9/10)

[–] crownklown 9 years ago

I like to think of it as Marnie was really there as a ghost, and she was there to help both herself and Anna movie on.

I think the scene that is really important is when Marnie is standing in the window and asks Anna to forgive her. You think its her asking for forgiveness for the silo, but you can also interpret that silo scene and the seeking of forgiveness as Marnie asking her granddaughter for forgives for dying and leaving her alone.

Remember it was basically Marnie's death that caused the shift in Anna's personality, and Anna even tells her at one point that she cannot forgive her parents and grandmother for leaving her.

Marnie on the other is stuck as a ghost because of the guilt to her family, that is why she is able to "move on" when Anna forgives her.

[–] jamieparsons1 9 years ago

Exactly how I felt.

[–] tagrendy-892-110238 9 years ago

I don't think Marnie is a ghost, I think Anna felt neglected and yearned for a place where she could be "inside the circle". Being around the mansion and feeling familiar with it made her connect the dots from her early memories, the stories she was told as a baby. It's Ghibli style, you're in a world of things you're looking for with an exit to becoming a better person, beautiful.

[–] crownklown 9 years ago

Yes its Ghibli, aka lean towards the fantastic.

Plus how would you explain Anna being able to sketch a young girl version of Marnie, when as far as we know from the movie the only photo Anna could even be aware of is of the Mansion.

Also the times when Marnie starts mistaking Anna for her future husband make more sense from the standpoint of Marnie being "real" as a ghost.

Plus there is really no point in the Diary if the movie is just going to play it off as old stories she heard as a child.

Look you can spin it either way that you want.

But considering its based on a children's story written in 1967, I seriously doubt its supposed to be some deconstruction of a potentially mentally ill girl, but rather a fun little ghost adventure.

[–] jamieparsons1 9 years ago

I found it was the ghost of Marnie helping her granddaughter over her problems plus needing to be forgiven for leaving her alone (dying), which is what I got from their last scene together when Marnie apologises for leaving her and asks forgiveness.

[–] blacknyellowsquid 8 years ago

yes I took it as not clear-cut, but more along the lines that Marnie was really there in some form/presence as the little girl. Like you said, a way to help her and needing forgiveness.

For me it was when Hisako is telling Marnie's story and says that Marnie vowed that she'd never let her granddaughter be lonely. I was like awwww that's what she's doing even now. Even if not linearly and real-world-y as we can understand. Because Anna desperately needed a friend and to feel not abandoned, etc.

I'm open to it not being really stuck to time/space as we know it either. I felt Marnie in the house was still the spirit or old presence of herself as a child, not that she was even aware that Anna was her future granddaughter... that kind of thing. It was more like some poetic anachronistic way for them to connect again through space and time, for Anna not to be alone (and perhaps for Marnie to get some needed symbolic forgiveness, even if kid-Marnie didn't know what for yet).

[–] blust2 8 years ago

Did you watch the movie? Marnie is Anna's old grandma who was constantly telling her life long story to the young Anna. The memory of hearing such stories will always reside in Anna's subconscious. Anna also has the picture of the mansion, actually it is the only thing the young Anna held on in the orphanage before she was adopted.

[–] evygaspar 8 years ago

also, the doll that Anna is seen clutching in several flashbacks looks exactly like Marnie, and even wears the blue dress that Marnie most often appears in. it is not far-fetched to think that the doll that was her only comfort as a child took on life as the young Marnie, and even likely that the doll was picked by Marnie because it resembled her at a young age.

[–] leopoldfrank-1 8 years ago

It's strange. Watching it, I never once felt I needed to understand what Marnie was, the logic behind it. I was happy just accepting it and being taken along for the ride. Possibly the sign of a well made film.

[–] MtnMan13 7 years ago

Based on how it's presented in the film, I don't think there's a right answer. Some clues suggest it's a ghost, others suggest it's repressed memories. In the end, it doesn't really matter.

[–] The_Scarecrow 7 years ago

Just saw it again, and it became clear that Marnie is only in Anna's imagination made from her past memories of Marnie's stories and induced by daydreams while awake and dreams at night. Though it seems she might suffer from some kind of narcolepsy as well as she passed out in several places.

"Come in, dispatch. Send more paramedics."

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

I disagree, I think Marnie was a ghost, who both appeared to Anna in the present and who took her on a visit to the past, a visit she didn't particularly enjoy.

Having guessed why Marnie and Anna loved each other so deeply very early in the film I didn't find their relationship sinister, but I think it was meant to seem so at times. Marnie is clearly not of this Earth, and for much of the film she seems to be drawing Anna away from her real life and even putting her in danger, leaving her out in storms and abandoning her in ruins, at one point Anna is found unresponsive and ill after one of their meetings. That's not the stuff of fantasies, and even if it was, I think the film works better as a ghost story than a story of imagination. In some ghost stories, the living attach themselves to a spirit, and are drawn into the world of the spirits and the dead. It seemed like Anna was in danger of going there, for a while.