"Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" - Film Review
Even though he’s a shell with shoes who stands a mere one inch tall, there is more heart in Marcel (Jenny Slate) than in people sixty times his size. Heart is what’s at the center of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. The plot is very simple, and it involves a plight that will be familiar to many in this socially distant world: Marcel wants to find his family.
Marcel lives with his Nanna Connie (Isabella Rossellini) in a big home. As small shells, they’ve had to adapt to survive. Nanna Connie has learned to garden and Marcel enjoys creating Rube Goldberg inventions to collect fruits, drive around (in a tennis ball), and keep the household running. The previous human owners of the house, Mark (Thomas Mann) and Larissa (Rosa Salazar), broke up and accidentally took the rest of Marcel’s family with them. The house has since been turned into an Airbnb, but no guests take notice of Marcel and Nanna Connie until Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp) arrives.
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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is perhaps the strangest concept ever conceived of for a mockumentary. Those unfamiliar with Marcel’s origins as a YouTube short back in 2010 may take a little time to warm up to the googly-eyed shell, but it’s impossible not to be charmed by him. There’s so much unbridled hope and earnestness in Marcel’s one eye as he speaks directly to the camera about the family he’s lost. He goes about his daily chores taking care of Nanna Connie with unshakeable determination, and exudes a strength far beyond his size.
There are moments in the film when Marcel or Nanna Connie is speaking, but the camera is distracted by the wind rustling the trees outside or the birds soaring through the sky. The film has an awe-inspiring love for the world that is reminiscent of a Mike Mills film. Mills has a way of creating very personal works that serve as reminders of what truly matters in life. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is no different. This tiny, quirky shell forces the audience to recalibrate their lives.
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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On falls in the great genre of films about two people with seemingly nothing in common who come to realize how much they were hurting and in need of a friend. In the beginning, Dean is adamant that he doesn’t want to be on camera. He doesn't even want Marcel to ask him questions because the videos he’s making are supposed to be about Marcel. It’s Marcel who pushes back against Dean and asks if he wants to be removed from his work so that he doesn’t have to experience loss when it ends. That strikes a chord with Dean, who is staying at the Airbnb because he’s in the process of separating from his wife. It’s through getting to know each other that Dean and Marcel can begin the process of opening up to new adventures.
There’s a whimsical feeling in the movie that is effortlessly sustained throughout the film. Never did I imagine that a small, googly-eyed shell playing “Taps” on a cavatappi noodle could reduce me to tears. Or that I would ever see that same shell standing on the edge of a window planter singing The Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” with all the passion in the world. There’s also Alan, Marcel’s pet dog (a ball of lint), the dusty coffee table that acts as an ice rink for Marcel and Nanna Connie, and the tiny shell hat Marcel wears on his adventures.
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“I like you brave,” Nanna Connie tells Marcel toward the end of the movie. There’s a lot for a one-inch shell to be afraid of. And there’s a lot for an average-sized human, so much bigger than Marcel, to be afraid of. It’s easy to make excuses and turn down opportunities that scare us, and it’s easy to stay in the world that we know, but humanity is at its best when we are brave. Just like Nanna Connie said.
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