Martha Marcy May Marlene

2011 "You can get away. But you can never escape."
6.8| 1h41m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 October 2011 Released
Producted By: Cunningham & Maybach Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/marthamarcymaymarlene/
Synopsis

After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.

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Reviews

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!
XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.
Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
The Movie Diorama I really didn't know too much going into this, a rather unknown film that is infrequently discussed. To my surprise, I found this to be a resonating and haunting experience that boasted great cinematography and acting. A young girl named Martha escapes an abusive cult and returns to her family. As a result of a brainwashed mind, she suffers from delusions and paranoia to which she must attempt to restore her mentality before she loses it entirely. When the word "cult" is sprung into a description, you automatically think witches or vampires where they commence blood rituals and sacrificing lambs. In actual fact, cults are more common than you might think. In this story, the cult manipulated women into thinking they are vital aspects to a "family" but are deceived into being sexually abused. The screenplay downplays the ideologies of this goal, not for political aspirations, but to create an experiential visceral depiction of abuse. Some of the scenes are not pleasant to watch, I would go as far as saying the whole narrative makes you feel uneasy. The spiky relationship between Martha and Lucy was just as edgy as the cult flashbacks. The chronological shifts embed the two together, however the film isn't intelligent enough to utilise this method and deliver a good payoff. It seemed forced. Elizabeth Olsen's lead debut was a poignant one, she was mesmerising and captured the fragility of Martha beautifully. Sarah Paulson also caught my interest, another understated performance from her. The cinematography was hypnotising and the confident one take scenes felt bold and really enhanced the experience. Any emotional gauge or connection just didn't exist unfortunately, I wanted to empathise with the characters but a cold barrier was preventing me from doing so. The ending, as ambiguous as it was, again felt rather cold and unfinished. A captivating story, just not an emotionally powerful one.
hxamaranth Yes, it could have been the cult coming after her and yes they might have forced or coerced her to return or killed them all but it could also have been no more than some stranger that they almost hit and the rest could be Martha's intensifying paranoia constructing what we were seeing.The goal though was to get the audience to ask these questions but I think Durkin failed in defining the intent of posing this question which was to illustrate Martha's own confusion and uncertainty about her paranoia, not the audience's confusion about what happened. I could possibly suggest that he use a tighter close up on Olsen to capture the nuances of her expressions showing her fear and uncertainty but I think he tried to use a different tactic...Note that at times of her most paranoid, she is visually alone in the scenes. In the back of the car we don't see Ted and Lucy in the front seat. At the dinner party she is alone with the bartender despite the fact that there were dozens of people nearby. During her final swim she is alone when she sees the man sitting across the lake watching her. Even when she awakes in a panic and pushes Ted down the stairs we don't see his face or Lucy until after the fact. When she breaks the window on the black SUV, when she hears the pine cones hitting her window at night... she is alone.I think we as an audience just weren't offered a way to tie our own questions with Martha's state of mind. Maybe if there was a scene in which Martha asks these same questions to Lucy. Maybe if they shot from a first-person perspective. I don't know but it just didn't quite work for me.
brchthethird This was an excellent psychological drama with an impressive performance by Elizabeth Olsen. She plays a young woman who escapes from a cult and stays with her sister, but still has memories of the life she left behind that interfere with her ability to reintegrate. The whole story is rather subdued, but has some moments of quiet intensity and pain. I also liked how the story of her past and her present are intercut and told side by side, with each event having a parallel in or triggering a memory of something that happened to her before. The only downside was (what I felt to be) a rather anti-climactic ending. Other than that, it was a great indie film.
Mr-Fusion With "Martha Marcy May Marlene", there's a pervasive sense of foreboding right out of the gate. I really wanted to know what happened to Martha at that cult farm. But the bigger question that nagged throughout the movie (which is never really answered) is what drove her there in the first place? That's what was so frustrating because the movie offered very little in the way of answers. And the flip-flopping between past and present got old rather quickly. Alas, aside from Elizabeth Olsen's terrifically haunting performance, it's the frustration that sticks with me more than anything else. While this movie is great at setting the eerie vibe and leaving one completely unnerved, it's not one that I particularly want to revisit.5/10