Why Don’t We Take Male Trauma Seriously?
Critics have panned Welcome To Marwen, perhaps because we don’t care enough about men's grief.
Spoiler alert: last night I saw the movie Welcome to Marwen, and I have lots of thoughts about it. First of all, I loved the movie starring Steve Carell aka The Silver Fox. I’m a longtime fan of The Office, but ever since Carell did Dan In Real Life, I’ve enjoyed his ability to portray interesting and awkward men.
Welcome to Marwen is a creative and offbeat retelling of artist Mark Hogancamp’s story of survival after he was brutally assaulted outside a Kingston, NY bar.
The film is smart in that it doesn’t focus so much on the attack itself, but on Mark’s trauma and his use of art to heal. Throughout the film, the big question on my mind was why he wasn’t in therapy. All that was shown in the movie was a Russian PCA who dropped by monthly.
After seeing the film with a friend last night, I read more about Mark’s real-life story. This article explained that his insurance eventually ran out and he couldn’t afford to stick with his therapy. When that happened, Mark became angry. He felt evicted from the world.
That loneliness, anger, and isolation is what led him to create Marwen. Marwen is a fictional doll town where Mark…
