Film Review -- 'When Marnie Was There': A minor, yet beautiful ghost story

When Marnie Was There is a pretty ghost story from Studio Ghibli, the animation house that Hayao Miyazaki built. Circumstance, however, casts an unfortunate pall over the film.

Miyazaki, the legendary animator behind the classics Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle, announced his retirement last year. That decision, in essence, put an end to Studio Ghibli (it's officially "on hiatus," with no restart date in sight). It's a shame. The studio, especially Miyazaki's creations, had been the source of some of the most breathtaking hand-drawn animation ever put on the big screen.

It's difficult to put that out of your mind while watching When Marnie Was There - a movie that can't be judged without thinking, "This is it?" for Studio Ghibli. It's sad that a great studio ends on a minor note. But When Marnie Was There still deserves to be considered on its own merits, and while not a masterpiece, it is beautiful, nonetheless.

Anna (Pitch Perfect 2's Hailee Steinfeld in the English-language dub) is a 12-year-old who prefers the company of her sketchbook to that of other people. Her adoptive mother (Geena Davis) is worried that her asthmatic charge has grown depressed, and sends her to live with relatives in the countryside.

Anna finds solace exploring a mansion. There, she meets the mysterious Marnie (Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka), who, unlike many other 12-year-olds, appears and disappears at a moment's notice.

So, Anna enters Marnie's world and does not blink when her blond friend takes her to fancy parties with people in period dress, or ends up asleep, dirty and shoeless, by the side of the road after hanging with her new spectral friend.

The bulk of the story comes in the movie's final act, piling on an-explanation of the previous events, making the film feel bottom-heavy.

Like other Ghibli films, When Marnie Was There is gorgeous to look at. Even when the plot moves slowly, as it does in the beginning, there are sumptuous settings to get caught up in. And like its predecessors, When Marnie Was There, based on the book by Joan G. Robinson, is full of a kind of magic - one that is not questioned, but taken at face value from children who are not yet cynical enough to reject the impossible.

With Studio Ghibli gone, that magic goes with it.

(When Marnie Was There will be shown with both the English-language dub and in the original Japanese with subtitles.)

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