2011 was a good year for suspense films. Just when I think new ideas are played out, along comes a film like Take Shelter to renew my passion for this genre. But, in the end, most suspense films fail to break out. They are generally good, solid films, but lacking in some area. Such is the case with Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) spends two years with an abusive hippie cult in Upstate New York before reaching out to her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) for help. Lucy picks Martha up from a bus station and takes her to her rented house in Connecticut. In the two years that they have not seen each other, Lucy has married Ted (Hugh Dancy). Ted and Lucy have to remain patient with Martha, who has frequent flashbacks to her time on the cultish farm.
Through flashbacks, we learn that Martha came under the spell of a cult leader named Patrick (John Hawkes). They are a Manson-like family who believe that life and death are the same and that people just exist. Patrick is a word manipulator who has a special interest in Martha, who he gives the pet name "Marcy May." Patrick also introduces each of the young females into the cult. The apparent runaways are introduced into the cult through a drug-induced sex ritual that is supposed to be a "special" event.
As Martha comes to terms with her sister, the two years in Upstate New York continue to haunt her. Unable to distinguish between the present and the past, Martha frequently confuses the two, making her adjustment to living with Lucy difficult, at best. To further complicate matters, Martha has adopted some of the mantras of the cult, offering simplistic slogans as a way of communicating. It appears that she may have been brainwashed more than anyone realized. As she tries to recover, Martha never fully shares her experiences with Lucy, who finally realizes that Martha requires more help than she is able to give.
Martha Marcy May Marlene presents an interesting, fertile ground for developing an intense thriller. With complex characters that engage the audience, this film should have broken from the pack of tolerable suspense films. Instead, it languishes due to sluggish pacing and a plot that never fully develops. The concept provides for an open ending, which I am okay with. But the abrupt conclusion did not fit just right. We were never given enough pieces to fully absorb or comprehend Martha's struggles, so the film felt like it short-changed the audience. I would have liked great intensity, better pacing, and something plot-oriented that had substance, other than ending the way this film ended.
The acting was exceptional, which is another reason that this film could have been much better than it was. I loved Hawke when he was on Deadwood. He was one of my favorite characters. In this film, he draws the clear Charles Manson parallel. But I was more impressed with Olsen, who clearly (in my mind) has more talent that her older sisters. She looks fabulous (and showed us some of her shapely figure). But her performance struck me as balanced. She created a strong character that I could accept and identify with, had the writing been a bit stronger. Paulson and Dancy were decent in support of the stronger lead performances.
I had another issue with this film, which I don't think was related to my venue. The sound was horrible. I was in a theater that I have not screened a film in before, and thought it might be the venue. However, the sound was inconsistent. Sometimes it was too loud, especially when there were sound effects, like a phone ringing. But the dialogue, for the most part, was so subdued that I had to strain just to make out the words. The deviance between the dialogue and much louder sound effects was distracting. I may have lost some of the meaning of this film to dialogue that was inaudible.
Martha Marcy May Marlene was rated R by the MPAA. This rating reflects a variety of strong issues that this film tackles. The cult concept, in and of itself, can create some scary intensity. But the film also features drug-induced rape scenes and semi-graphic violence. The more disturbing aspect of the rape scenes are the way the cult discusses them afterwards. The film also has strong language and some nudity. The nudity was contextual and included buttocks and breasts.
I thought I was going to love Martha Marcy May Marlene. Instead, I tolerated it. It was a decent film, with plenty of strong subject matter. In the end, an interesting concept and strong acting failed to elevate this film past the sluggish pacing and under-developed plot. As much as I wanted this film to succeed, it is clearly a middle-of-the-pack thriller. 6.5/10.
Photos and trailer property of Fox Searchlight Pictures.