Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) is not merely a movie—it’s more of an experience. Or rather, like a dark dream that you can’t shake off in the morning.
The film is about a young woman named Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who escapes from a cult in upstate New York, and finds refuge with her sister (Sarah Paulson) in a neighboring state. As the film wears on, and Martha tries to recover, more and more of her life before and during her stay with the cult “family” is revealed.
Obviously, life in a cult is a sensitive subject—it’s something that not many have experienced, so it’s difficult to speak to with honesty and authority. However, Martha Marcy May Marlene handles it with grace, and little judgment.
What struck me most about the film is how much information was left out for the audience to puzzle out, and fill in themselves. Sean Durkin, the director, gives us snippets, not whole stories—a scene here, a line of dialogue there. For most of the film, we have no idea what Martha’s previous life was like, why she got into the cult, what the situation with her real family is. The ambiguity of the storytelling puts us into Martha’s own confused mindset about what is real or dream or lie. Durkin achieves this through careful crosscutting of scenes in the past and the present. In one scene, we might be in Martha’s sister’s summer home, and the next, in a farmhouse (the home of the cult). Eventually, you’re never quite sure what Durkin will explore next, as if we’re tuned into the fragmented thoughts of Martha herself.
The settings are unobtrusive, but still give the film a sense of timelessness (or rather, limbo). Both the cult’s home (a farmhouse) and Martha’s sister Lucy’s summer home are insulated by forests and wilderness, and we don’t see Martha in almost any other setting. Even though Martha has theoretically “escaped” the cult, it feels like she’s still there, like she’s trapped.
The unobtrusiveness of the settings also let the story and the actors shine through, most notably Olsen. I knew she was the sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley, so I was afraid her association with them was what got her the job (and therefore, would force us to sit through a mediocre performance). But, ultimately I was impressed by how real she was. Less elegant actors might have made Martha loopy or pitiful, or fulfilled some other preconception many have of cult survivors. Olsen, however, portrays Martha more like a person just arrived in a foreign country, trying to decipher a new set of customs, and reconcile them with her own. Her interpretation seems more authentic to what it must be like to escape a community that completely transforms your world view. Olsen radiates their influence without bashing us over the head with it.
Another notable performance was by John Hawkes, who plays Patrick, the cult leader. His portrayal was chilling, and simply unforgettable. Hawkes’s Patrick is charming, folksy, charismatic—but with an undercurrent of intelligence and manipulation. He delivers several one-liners with such confidence that they seem like his own invention. You can’t help but be drawn to his presence, even when he doesn’t say a word. Hawkes makes it clear why Martha chose to stay so long.
Lucy, the sister, is interesting too in that Durkin often parallels her with women in the cult that Martha knew, which brings up the question of whether Martha’s actual family is any better than the cult. In fact, there are several moments where Martha seems to contemplate going back. It’s difficult to imagine why a person would want to, but, as Durkin implies, everyone has a reason to participate in a cult in the first place. He complicates the issue by showing that Martha’s family and her adopted family both have their flaws and their benefits for her.
Simple answers are hard to come by in Martha Marcy May Marlene. While the story is very subjective and sympathetic toward Martha, she isn’t portrayed as simply a victim to the allure of the cult. Blame is not allotted to any particular person or event—just to the tangle of different factors in Martha’s life. The film never lets itself become oversimplified, which is what makes it so memorable.
(Source: static.moviefanatic.com)
