Although it tells a mildly fantastical tale of ghosts and a magical mansion, “When Marnie Was There” is best at capturing authentic childhood experience.
Even the sound is right: Maybe it stands out because we’re watching an animated movie, but the ambient noise is uncannily good — when the heroine arrives at her new home for the summer, every creaky floorboard and tinkling windchime gives a feeling of “Yes, that’s exactly how that sounds.”
Those things stand out especially keenly when experienced in a new place, which is the situation for Anna (voiced by Sara Takatsuki). She’s been sent to the seaside by her frustrated adoptive mother, who suspects a change of scenery would benefit the shy girl.
Anna stays with a kindly older couple, but her imagination is captured by the moody house across a tidal flat, where an ethereal blonde girl, Marnie (Kasumi Arimura), offers friendship. (Locally the film will be shown in both dubbed-into-English and Japanese language versions; the dubbed version has Hailee Steinfeld and Kieran Shipka as Anna and Marnie.)
The story, adapted from a book by Joan G. Robinson, is developed in the typically thoughtful style of Studio Ghibli, the storied Japanese animation house. Like the best of Ghibli’s films, “Marnie” is absolutely in sympathy with its young protagonist; there’s no fake grown-up inventions about what kids are like.
It’s got missing pages from a diary, hidden inscriptions on the backs of paintings, and a mysterious old silo where you shouldn’t go. Those hooks are just solid enough to carry the plot through its sometimes gauzy progress.
Director Hirosama Yonebayashi — under the eye of Ghibli guru Hayao Miyazaki — previously helmed Ghibli’s “Secret World of Arietty,” a gorgeous little daydream of a movie.
“Marnie” doesn’t have the sustained momentum of “Arietty” — at times I lost the thread as I was sorting out what was past and present, and what was real and imaginary. One might also feel a twinge of regret at the Disney-ready image of Marnie, with her Farrah Fawcett hair.
But the visual presentation is stupendous, a colorful combination of the lush and the simple. Plus, refreshingly, there are no boys around to provide romantic interest or save the day in the end. They are not needed in this portrait of female friendship and listless summer days.
“When Marnie Was There” (three stars)
A shy girl goes to a seaside town for a summer break, and becomes entranced by the mysterious girl who lives in a mansion. This is a typical Studio Ghibli production, short on story but long on detail and pretty animation. In Japanese, with English subtitles (some screenings).
Rating: PG, for subject matter
Showing: SIFF Cinema Uptown
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