Movie Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

It’s a strange moment, when you realise that the life you’ve been living is actually not what your body and brain are designed for. For example, I’ve lived all my life in cities or suburbs, and in cities and suburbs there are always rules, restrictions, witnesses and emergency services. You lock your doors and by and large people respect that boundary, and you do your best to forget that all that separates you from the rainstorm outside is a foot of brick or a few panes of glass. All that separates you from the violence of others is the collective knowledge that this organisation of people - civil society or whatever you choose to call it - relies on everybody respecting those boundaries and hoping that theirs are respected in turn. So it really is chilling when you watch something like Martha Marcy May Marlene and realise that all that it takes to break this social contract is the will to do so. This film is definitely one of the most unsettling and disturbing I’ve seen in a long time.

Written and directed by first-timer Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene follows the story of Martha, who runs away from a rural commune and stays with her estranged sister and brother-in-law. Damaged by her time as Marcy May in this commune, she is haunted by flashbacks, dreams and paranoia as she attempts to re-assimilate into society, and her inability to share her experiences with her family leads to resentment, anger and all the other nice things family dramas bring.

The dual narratives, of her time with her sister and brother-in-law and her time in the commune, develop simultaneously. After seeing Martha’s abnormal social behaviour with her family in the present we are shown a flashback to her time in the commune which explains this behaviour, and this structure continues throughout the film until, literally, her past catches up with her. Simple things like gardening skills and swimming nude are the first signs of social difference, and are explained away innocently enough, but as the story develops and Martha seems increasingly awkward and frantic, the commune is revealed as essentially a cult headed by the charismatic and intimidating Patrick (John Hawkes). When women like Martha are first brought in to the community they are made welcome, cared for and nurtured. Soon they take part in a ‘cleansing ceremony’ where they are first drugged and then raped by Patrick, before being convinced by the rest of the community that this is a good thing, a right of passage, and a way of bringing everybody closer together. The danger of this cult becomes clearer the deeper into the backstory we go, and this coincides with Martha’s increasing paranoia and mental distress in the company of her sister and brother-in-law, and the strain it puts on their relationships.

While Elizabeth Olsen is rightly being praised for her tough, confident and emotional turn as Martha (and it is at times hard to believe that this girl grew up in the shadow of the more famous Olsen twins, her older sisters) the real star performance in this piece comes from John Hawkes as cult-leader Patrick. Anybody who remembers his disturbing turn as Teardrop in Winter’s Bone, for which he received an Oscar nomination, will already know that he exudes presence and charisma on the screen. For this role he acts not only as the leader of the commune, benefitting from the women and material at his fingertips, but also as a spiritual leader and teacher, a hick Yoda to a bunch of disillusioned suburban kids who are looking for their place in the world. The sheer menace of Patrick ensures that his presence is felt even when he isn’t on screen, and serves to heighten the tension of an already engrossing film.

And what tension. With little background music and not much by way of inspirational dialogue, the sheer mundanity of the conversations and situations in which we find the characters creates a sense of believability which might be absent from a higher budget affair. It is little surprise that Sean Durkin won the Directing Award at Sundance for this piece, as he proves adept at both the construction of the narrative and the setting of the mood for the film. if he’s not careful he could have a very bright future indeed.

I really cannot stress enough how unsettling and disturbing this film is. It is without doubt the most troubling film I have watched since The Road, and while it is engaging, emotional and impressive you can now consider yourself warned: Martha Marcy May Marlene is really, properly creepy.