It goes without saying, as with all of Studio Ghibli’s films, that their production of When Marnie Was There is lushly beautiful. It was also the last film to be put out by Studio Ghibli before the studio went on a hiatus prompted by the retirement of co-founder, and director Hayao Miyazaki, and it may very well be the studio’s final film. With that said, the film has plenty of mystery and just enough magic to cast a certain spell on the viewer. Working from his script adapted from Joan G. Robinson’s novel, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi handles the story well and allows it to unfold gradually, sometimes too gradually, around Anna, who feels that she lives on an outer circle of life, detached from everyone else; a feeling most who have passed through adolescence have known.

Against repeated stress-induced asthma attacks, Anna goes away from her overly-worrying but adoring foster parents to stay with relatives by the seaside for the summer. Drawn across a salt marsh by a scenic and enigmatic mansion, Anna meets and befriends a pretty blonde girl with eyes like hers, and they agree to keep their friendship secret. That girl’s name is Marnie and it is at this point that a ghost story burgeons and enters into the heart of the film.

As in many of the most potent ghost stories, the ghosts here are the ghosts of memory, born of echoes across time and the dreams that sprout and take root in a particular place. Her chimerical relationship with Marnie reveals to Anna discoveries of her own past and identity which allow her to open up and connect with those around her better. As she comes to terms with the humanness, both the kindness and the frailties, of the people around her, Anna too becomes more human, more forgiving of others and herself. Thus the ghosts are irrevocably intertwined with the psychology of the central character and the film is all the richer for it.

The gas tank of mystery and magic which fuels the film does begin to sputter on little but fumes in the end, holding just barely not enough to sustain the duration. But it is overall a graceful and very pretty picture and, though certainly not the biggest or shiniest one, it is yet another jewel in the Studio Ghibli crown. Here's to wishing it were not indeed the last.