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Martha Marcy May Marlene2011 | 102 min | R | 2.39:1
Here’s a film that leaves a host of unanswered questions and uncontested behavior behind. A deliberately opaque psychological drama, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is a frustrating picture to watch, and it’s not because of its gut-churning portrayal of survival and surrender. Writer/director Sean Durkin aims to produce a mood of escalating disease, watching the title character succumb to her demons, fighting to grasp an enormous amount of trauma incurred by enigmatic seducers and antagonistic types. There’s plenty of meaningful staring and teary acts of mental distortion, but insight? Not in this remote art-house effort, a feature that prefers to exhibit pain instead of understanding it. 
Walking out of her remote commune home one afternoon, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister to former kid-entertainment titans Mary-Kate and Ashley) makes a scattered call for help to sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson). Accepted into Lucy’s vacation home shared with husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), Martha attempts to settle into a domestic routine, finding her invasive rural habits clashing with her sister’s urban attitude. Besieged by nightmares and paranoia, Martha is haunted by her time in a cult-like group, overseen by manipulator Patrick (John Hawkes), who runs his compound with a suffocating psychological hold. Dealing with memories of rape and murder, Martha is losing contact with reality, leaving Lucy in a difficult position to help her sister. Durkin isn’t fascinated with the facts of Martha’s experience within the vaguely defined cult, he’s eager to cover the aftermath of her time with these strangers, exploring how a seemingly fragile woman became sucked into a poisonous family and altered forever. However, a major question remains: who was Martha to begin with? “Martha Marcy May Marlene” doesn’t have that answer nor does it seem to care about any type of personal history. The viewer is left with shards of personality and interpersonal dynamic as Martha and Lucy share an uneasy reunion, unable to communicate for some mysterious reason despite a script that hints at a fractured yet considerable amount of time spent together as kids. While it’s never explicitly stated, it’s assumed that Martha enjoyed a bumpy but sincere childhood, carrying a knowing way about her that exudes education, exposure to worldly ways, and awareness of life’s cruelties. 
Instead of drilling into the complexity of Martha, Durkin remains on the perimeter, observing the character melt in Patrick’s hands, won over by his snake-like charms and concentrations of praise (he’s a mix of Manson and Koresh). Martha buys into the sect’s misogynistic practices without concern, soon leading rituals of rape without a second thought, seemingly happy to have household purpose. Durkin skips steps of deliberation to hit broad points of submission and regret, focusing on Martha’s shock once murder enters the picture, perhaps an act that finally opens her eyes to this lethal situation. While cult customs are potentially enthralling, Durkin treats the experience in hindsight, lurching back and forth through time to underline Martha’s unraveling in Lucy’s care, revealing the girl’s mysterious inability to express her worries to a woman she came to for help. Without an understanding of relationships and care for their construction, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is left a vague minefield of disturbances in need of a human element. I found myself losing interest in Martha’s dilemma as the film unfolded, frustrated with these characters and their absurd disinterest in direct communication. Something is clearly bothering Martha, forcing her to lash out in progressively more vicious ways, yet Lucy remains in a paralyzed state, unwilling to reach out her sister, who was clearly worth the effort to save at one point early in the movie. The screenwriting is maddening at times, glossing over common sense to position the characters in clichéd stances of conflict. Meaningful conversations are ignored for melodrama or stillness, putting Olsen in a difficult position of articulation, forced to express a character’s inner life that exists only in morsels, sold with series of blank stares and verbal confrontations that, once again, suggests Martha possesses a sophistication the script is unwilling to address. However, Durkin likes to keep her raw and standoffish. It does wonders to blanket the plot’s budding inconsistencies. 
Durkin hits a few notes of paranoia that keep “Martha Marcy May Marlene” involving, ratcheting up the lead character’s anxiety as she imagines the cult’s presence everywhere. Perhaps the picture would’ve worked strictly as a thriller, with suspense a great tool of distraction when the script fails to connect the dots. As a searing drama of unimaginable mental and physical invasion, it’s stunningly implausible. Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Maria Dizzia Director: Sean Durkin » See full cast & crew |
 
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