Martha Marcy May Marlene

Movie: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Genre: drama

Synopsis: The movie opens with Martha (Elizabeth Olson) running away from a cult.  She has lived with this cult (4 men and 8 or so women) for two years.  They live in an old farm in rural New York.  The cult is led by Patrick (John Hawkes). Early on, Martha (who is re-named Marcy May by Patrick) is enthralled with her new “family”.  Eventually she begins to see a not-so-nice side of it – which leads to her running away.  She ends up re-uniting with her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and stays with her.  Martha will not go into any details about where she has been, and Lucy never really realizes the degree to which Martha was emotionally damaged by the cult – she does not even know about the cult.  The movie continually cuts back and forth between Martha’s time with the cult and the present, as she tries to shake off of lasting effect the cult has had on her.

My two cents: This was a really interesting movie. I believe it is only the second film for Elizabeth Olson (younger sister of the Mary Kate and Ashley).  Based on this film, she has a heck of a career ahead of her.  John Hawkes also did a great job.  The only part of this movie that I have a bone to pick with is the ending.  It was the kind of ending I hate – where it looks like someone accidently cut the film before the end – it really leaves you hanging.  I read a few blogs from people who went to showings of the movie that had members of the cast or the director on hand for Q&A – and apparently it was the director’s intent to leave things up in the air – in which case, he succeeded.

Note: the names in the title are derived from her actual name (“Martha”), the name Patrick gave her (“Marcy May”) and the name that all of the women in the cult used when answering the phone (“Marlene”).

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