Review #693: 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' (2011)

When we first meet the mysterious 'cult' family in Martha Marcy May Marlene, it seems like the group are living a kind of idyllic, old-fashioned rural lifestyle, where the dungaree-wearing men hammer nails and build all day, while the women quietly do chores and prepare the men's dinner. Everyone seems happy, and the camp leader, the craggy, guitar-strumming Patrick (the fantastic John Hawkes) is charismatic and oddly charming. Yet there's an underlying sense of unease during these scenes, and this is where the film is at its best, slowly revealing through flashbacks the group's real motivations, as if peeping through the curtain of the strange family down the road.

Where the film sadly fails, is that the revelations aren't particularly surprising. Debut writer/director Sean Durkin's intentions are clearly not to produce a schlocky horror film with a big pay-off. It is more interested in the lasting effects the group has on its protagonist, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), after she escapes and re-unites with her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who is living in middle-class comfort hosting parties with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy). Durkin heavily researched cults, but found the experiences of a young girl's life three weeks after she had escaped the most interesting, and Martha is an extremely damaged woman. Known by three different names, she has clearly lost her own identity, and finds it difficult to fit back into society.

Lucy and Ted struggle with Martha's increasingly erratic behaviour, as she bursts with fits of anger and innocently enters situations that society have deemed inappropriate. Olsen is a revelation here, giving a performance of maturity and complexity, a hushed, awkward presence in her sister's house of social formality. Hawkes is also impressive, following his creepy, Oscar-nominated performance in Winter's Bone (2010) with another character that slowly reveals himself as the film progresses. But for all it's indie-awareness and technical achievements (the film has a murky, ghostly feel), it's ultimately a victim of its own promises. It does so well at creating tension and foreboding, that it damages the rather predictable revelations. Still, Durkin is a director to keep an eye on, and Olsen, who went criminally unrecognised at an Oscars that was noticeably lacking in meaty female roles, should enjoy a long career.


Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Hugh Dancy
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie