The quasi-Sapphic intensity of Anna and Marnie's relationship - recalling Ghost World or a benign Heavenly Creatures - is poetically and sensitively handled.

While Marnie lacks the densely mystical, immersive quality of Ghibli at its best, the film features characteristically exquisite hand-drawn animation and a sensitivity to the precarious, friable quality in an adolescent girl's self-worth.

The painterly, old-school aesthetic brings an aptly nostalgic feel to this examination of how the past can haunt the present and the rapturous intensity of young friendship.

... a gentle, touching story of confronting turbulent emotions that acknowledges that, however unfair, such feelings are real and cause real damage.