Country:
USA
Starring:
Elizabeth Olsen
Sarah Paulsen
John Hawkes
Hugh Dancy
Directed By:
Sean Durkin
Whenever I write I review, for a movie, a novel or even a video game, I always have a crippling fear of not being eloquent. Hell, most times I'm not and there's a reason for that. I'm always trying to give too much credit to mass produced movies, who were given the though process of a Kim Kardashian product. I know I'm too nice and I'm too good of an audience, but sometimes, there's a movie like MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, that makes it worth my while. Sean Durkin's first full-length feature has a clear mind and most important, something to say. It's one thing to be entertaining, but it's another ball game to be stimulating. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is a slow, predatory animal that will pull you into the confusing, misleading universe of cult survivors. It's also the introduction of a legit new talent in Sean Durkin.
Martha (Olsen) and Lucy (Paulsen) are sisters. When their mother dies and they become orphaned, Martha is hit the hardest and longs for attachment, love, which she finds in a strange, hippie-like cult in the Catskills. Charismatic leader Patrick (Hawkes) is renovating a farm, hoping to create a self-sufficient community, away from any influences of modern lifestyles. But you know, a cult of personality being what it is, what Patrick says automatically goes and there is a metric fuckton of abuse. At the beginning of MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, Martha runs away from the cult, to find shelter with Lucy and her husband Ted (Dancy). Reconnecting with the world after two years of being in a destructive cult, without professional help, isn't easily done. Martha is trying to salvage her relationship to her sister, but she's haunted by the memories of her time spent in Patrick's cult.
An interesting point in MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, is that you never really know what Patrick is preaching. You get the idea that he's a hippie, return-to-the-Earth type of guy, but there is no scenes of him preaching to his followers or exploiting the charismatic leader angle like all the sect/cult movies usually do. No, for most part, Patrick is sweet and charming, if a little controlling. He passes judgment on his followers' habits he judges unhealthy and they are so afraid to disappoint him that they obey. The choice of John Hawkes, who has a superb underplayed game. He's one of the best kept secrets in Hollywood and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is another evidence of that. What Sean Durkin decides to show instead is Patrick preying on his followers' need to belong. He gives them all a new name, apparently a candid gesture, but which cements their community identity and helps separating them from who they were and from the outside world. Hence the title of the film.
Sean Durkin has obviously great understanding of both cinematographic metaphor and personality disorders. He's also a patient storyteller, who juggles with every possible variable cinema can offer to craft his movies. There are beautiful, poetic frames where Elizabeth Olsen (who by the way has a lot more game than her sisters) is lost in a beautiful frame, right before a memory sequence happens. He illustrates that Martha feels lost in her newfound freedom and goes back to the cult memories as anchors of her identity, so she normally feels gradually more lost and out of place as the film progresses. It's a very cerebral, psychological movie that understands the notion of triggers for people with personality disorders and uses them to pace the action.
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE has a dark, tormented beauty to both its style and its story. Sean Durkin created a smart, seamless movie where the aesthetic is, but an echo of what's going on inside Martha. Every aesthetic decision is based on the point of view of her protagonist. It's a slow movie, but it keeps you thinking and involved. It requires a bigger cerebral involvement than an emotional one, but it's by no way a heartless or even worse, an academic movie. Sean Durkin is a sound storyteller and he found the beauty in Martha's helpless downfall. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is a good, challenging movie that isn't punishingly hard. It doesn't thrive in idiosyncrasy, but it doesn't dwell into lazy, tired storytelling either. An invigorating, thought-provoking viewing experience.
FOUR STARS *
* I will use the start system for movies from now on. The inaccuracy of it, make it awkwardly more accurate to evaluate something unquantifiable such as art.