Marnie and Me

As expected, spoilers.

When Marnie Was There was an Oscar-nominated masterpiece, with a lot of heart. The tale follows a 12-year-old asthmatic, depressed girl, Anna, who is sent by her foster parents to live with their relatives in the country side to get better. Better, how? Breathe better, of course, but even her foster mother was worried about Anna's peace of mind. As was every fricking person in this Ghibli universe-

She meets a mysterious girl named Marnie at a marsh house.

That's Marnie, right there! Beautiful, isn't she?

And it's at this point in the movie, that, things start getting real wacky and mystical.

Anna does not see Marnie for the first time at the marsh house, she sees her in a dream. Marnie is told this on their first meeting, and replies it was not a dream.

[Gasp]

WHO IS THIS GIRL?? (and what's her num-)

This movie is primarily about getting better. After a solid screw up at a festival when Marnie calls a loud acquaintance named Nobuko a "fat pig", Nobuko first responds with hostility, saying [paraphrased], "Now I see why you want to be normal."

Ouch.

But an apt response to being called a fat pig.

Nobuko acts kindly then, offering to drop it and move on, because she realizes that Anna is a sad girl who needs help.

Thus far, everyone has been helping Anna as much as they could, but in the wrong way.

For a person with this sick disease that boils you from the inside out (I don't mean the asthma), it is not enough to be given compassion and compliments. It is more important tenfold to offer the foundation of contentment, to be seen.

Anna runs away after Nobuko offers to forget about it.

The thing about Nobuko is, she is a kind woman who is just a bit too kind and perhaps too pushy for someone in the state of mind as Anna. Nobuko couldn't help her, and Anna hurts her. Ouchie.

 Anna finds herself rowing a boat for the first time when running away from the festival. This is when she meets Marnie. At the marsh house, remember?

Marnie is a beautiful girl with a distinct and mysterious aura about her. She feels...otherworldly.

Every word uttered always feels like a gift wrapped just for you. She insists their meetings remain secret.

Once in a while, we see the people inside the house. This is important. There's Nan the nanny, Marnie's parents, the folks at the party, and so forth. They have a very similar "smell" to them, almost as if they're not real, they seem flawless and supernatural inspite of their subjective character flaws.

Marnie makes Anna feel seen.

They meet more often now. They keep their meetings secret, holding hands, rowing boats, and playing hide-and-seek.

Marnie implies she knew Anna since before their first meeting. We still don't know who she is to her. They say "I love you" to each other. A lot.

And Anna visibly blushes  every instance Marnie comes close to her, especially during hugs.

After their joyous and warm few secret meetings, Anna is a changed girl. She is happy, content, and kind to her people, her demeanor has changed completely.

This is starting to feel oddly like a romantic relationship.

Was Marnie Queerbaiting?

No. I- I hope not.

I feel like everyone that has something to say about this movie is convinced that Anna and Marnie were gay for each other. No.. that's- that's wrong. She's her grandmother. This shouldn't-

After we get that info dump at the end along with the plot twist about Marnie actually being Anna's grandmother, said watchers I mentioned above were very disappointed.

9-year-old me was in tears. And not out of disappointment.

I felt seen.

Besides feeling that something was weird about their little dance, and despite being a bi kitty myself who had a slipping grasp of what that even meant at the time, I was  not disappointed. I felt heard, seen, touched, smelt, and hopefully not tasted.

Marnie wasn't attempting to queerbait, or at least I hope not. She is simply a ghost of a distant time who brought parts of her childhood with her for Anna to experience, and let Anna slip parts of herself into it, such as taking the place of a flower girl who wasn't originally her decades ago (as the diary suggests, there was a different flower girl), and body-swapping with her grandfather.

Well, I'm biased, but that's because this was the first movie I'd ever seen that resonated with me emotionally.

That opening scene, Anna's monologue:

"In this world, there's an invisible magic circle. There's an inside, and an outside. And I'm outside."

This  is what hooked me into this movie in fourth grade. Finally, I found my experience reflected into an artistic medium. It wasn't pathologically poked fun at, per se, but it was shown for what it was: a massively experienced phenomenon depicted through the life of one lonely girl, where everyone else seemed fine.

Marnie gives Anna the push to love herself. By loving herself, Anna could love others.

Aw.

This almost reads like Marnie masterminded these interactive hallucinations of her past into Anna's psyche so she could explore her sexuality or romantic interests, and thus get better that way.

It's very murky if you look at it from an incestuous perspective, but the movie is beautiful nonetheless.