Elizabeth Olsen is fantastic in her film debut “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and really that alone is the pull that is intriguing the masses. However, that is also the only bright spot in this otherwise gratuitously draining movie. It’s not worth trying to figure out. And, it’s definitely not worth the $12 it takes to see a movie these days. A movie doesn’t have to always have answers, but a story would be nice.
Martha (Olsen) is transitioning out of a cult and returning to “normal” life, which sounds like a movie-worthy premise but in the end, ultimately fails. . At times it seems less like Martha is traumatized by her cult life and more like a teenager who had run away from home. Olsen is reminiscent of the early days of another indie-It Girl, Maggie Gyllenhaal mixed with the ear-tucking, wide-eyed persona of “My So-Called Life’s” Angela Chase. She is sweet, endearing, troubled and complex. The movie fails because it fulfills none of those qualities and it literally feels like time is standing still.
Forget about ghosts, zombies and vampires; cults are truly frightening. But what makes them so scary is the psychological influence they have over people. In this particular film, it drives the members to endure rape, stealing and murder all for the sake of survival and to feel purified. The brainwashing influence should be the meat of the story. Instead, what the audience sees are snapshots of everything people believe about cults, the shock factor of everything that makes it bad when a more interesting aspect would be, what makes it so good?
Writer/director Sean Durkin also edits the movie well by bouncing back and forth between Martha’s cult life and present life. And, the movie doesn’t delve too deeply into where the separation from Martha and her family begins because frankly, it’s unnecessary. When her newlywed sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and Lucy’s husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy) allow Martha to stay with them, there is an inevitable awkwardness between all parties involved (including the audience).
Cult leader Patrick (John Hawkes) seems neither charismatic nor convincing, but just grungy and odd, like a man that would lure you into a van. The scene with the cat is particularly revolting. They say cults embed a sense of belonging into their members, but at this upstate New York farm, it looks more like every man for himself. The movie is like having all the pieces to the puzzle but not putting them together correctly. Much like the title of the film, it’s trying too hard, going too far and creating a jumbled mess and plopping them down on film one painful scene after another.
Olsen herself said in an interview that she didn’t vie for this part. She said that it actually came at a time when she just needed a job. Of course, that’s not to say that she is not grateful and proud of her role, but even so, it’s a movie that may land rave reviews for her “breakout performance,” the performance will also be one people will want to quickly forget.