Martha Marcy May Marlene [HD]

A Trauma that Bridges Past and Present
Martha Marcy May Marlene marks the debut of two talents, the director, Sean Durkin, and the actress, Elizabeth Olsen. Both actor and director show a kind of assured performance that seems relegated to those who are either new to a scene, when talent has been building up for some time and only now has had a chance to unveil itself, or to older creative types, who have enough success behind them that they no longer fear failure (the in-between is usually the tricky part). Elizabeth Olsen (and here I'm required to tell you that she is the younger sister to the famed Full House Olsen twins) plays Martha, a girl who has spent an indeterminate amount of time in a cult hidden away in upstate New York. She eventually flees the confines of the commune and is taken in by her sister and brother-in-law who own a spacious lake house in Connecticut.

From here the film is divided into two narratives, one chronicling Martha's ordeal in the Manson-like collective and the other detailing her...

Deeply Unsettling, With a Star-Making Performance from Elizabeth Olsen
A young woman called Marcy May (played by newcomer Elizabeth Olsen, remember her name) flees from an abusive cult and calls her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) to pick her up. Her sister, who calls her Martha, hasn't seen her in over a year and finds Martha deliberately vague about where she has been. Lucy brings her to the large home she shares with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) and Martha's time in the cult is revealed through intercut flashbacks. Branded Marcy May by Patrick (John Hawkes), the charismatic leader, the commune consists of few men and many women, most from troubled backgrounds. The women are assigned individual duties, but the one they all share is to sleep with Patrick. The film wisely avoids giving too many details about the cult itself and what its basis is, but fills in all the necessary details otherwise.

This 2011 indie thriller marks the debut of writer/director Sean Durkin who has fashioned a quiet, powerful psychological drama that introduces the world...

Elizabeth Olsen can't quite save this unsatisfying psychological thriller
Put newcomer Elizabeth Olsen on the list of brilliant young actresses filling the movie screen these days. In this psychological thriller, twentyish Martha Marlene (Olsen) leaves home after her mother dies. We don't know why, but she severs contact with her older sister, Lucy (excellent Sarah Paulson) who is married to Ted (Hugh Dancy). Somehow she ends up at a commune of sorts, headed by one of those Charles Manson types, but without the visible menace. Patrick (good as usual John Hawkes) clearly runs the show for his collective of young women and young men. What happens to them when they get older? We do know that occasionally children are born, but against all odds they are always boys. Hmmm.

After Martha (now renamed Marcy May by Patrick) is sexually abused, she decides to slip away into the woods. She finds her way into town and calls her sister on a pay phone. It's been 2 years but Martha doesn't know where she is. She thinks it's in upstate New York. Huh...

Click to Editorial Reviews