I should warn you right off that I like typing Martha Marcy May Marlene so much I’m going to be referring to the film by it’s full title in this first paragraph as often as possible. Let’s get it out of the way early. Martha Marcy May Marlene is a unique filmgoing experience that had me completely riveted and in emotional turmoil from the moment it began until the moment it ended. Sean Durkin is a first time feature director and Elizabeth Olsen is a very new presence in Hollywood, having only starred in one film before this, but with Martha Marcy May Marlene they have both just landed on the scene like megaton bombs. Durkin and Olsen are the real deal, and with this haunting, harrowing tale of a young girl joining and attempting to escape a secluded cult, they have created a film that is sure to be at the very top of a million best-of lists come the end of the year. Martha Marcy May Marlene has serious awards season potential for sure, but it’s also so dang creepy and scary that it could have some potential for mainstream success as well. Forget any of the typical horror movies that come out around Halloween, none of those 3D gore fests and found footage ghost stories will have anything on the chills provided by the sharp direction of Durkin and the frightening menace of cult leader Patrick (John Hawkes) in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Any success is going to depend on whether or not enough people head out to the theaters in the next couple weeks to expand the film to a wide release. So let’s dig a little deeper and see if it sounds like something you’d be interested in.
Martha Marcy May Marlene is very quiet and very slow. It unfolds itself in deliberate fashion, letting you discover its layers one at a time, and every rung you go down the ladder builds the experience of entering the secluded world created by John Hawkes’ Patrick into a more nerve-wracking one. A lot of filmmakers attempting to take this approach would make a boring movie, but Durkin is somehow able to effectively utilize a less-is-more approach to build unmatched tension. This movie has such an air of menace I was literally watching it on the edge of my seat. You might just be seeing a quiet scene of some people gardening, but because you have no idea what might come next, and you know something bad will, the situation is enthralling. Then some thunder cracks out in the distance and your stomach twists into a knot. Martha Marcy May Marlene makes you feel what it must be like to live under the thumb of someone you utterly fear, every second of this film puts you in the shoes of the protagonist, feeling what she feels, trying to understand why she does what she does.
A large part of why Martha Marcy May Marlene works so effectively is the performance of virtuoso God amongst actors John Hawkes. Is there anything this guy can’t do? To glance at him you would think that he were just a skinny, weird looking doormat; someone of no real consequence. But all he needs is a single scene to get his hooks in you and get you paying attention to everything he does. Durkin wisely gives him room to show off. Hawkes can appear soulful, he can whip out a guitar and play an awesome song, and he can somehow puff up his slight frame into something dangerous and terrifying. The menace this man is able to project is astounding, and everything that he does as an actor makes him a perfect candidate to be the leader of a brainwashed cult, both in this film and probably in real life if he so chose. I wouldn’t complain if he played every bad guy and anti-hero in every movie from this point forward. I want to see 100 John Hawkes films a year.
And now that I’ve seen what Elizabeth Olsen has to offer, I wouldn’t mind if she made 80 or so a year either. She’s classically trained in her craft, and with this character she gets the perfect chance to let it show. Martha, or Marcy May, or Marlene, depending on what she’s being called in which part of the film you’re watching, isn’t just a horror movie victim. She isn’t there to whimper, shriek, and be meek. She’s a lovable, capable character who is able to effectively convey how a normal person, who may just be feeling a little lost at the time, could find themselves trapped in such a ridiculous situation as being drugged, raped, and committing murders as the member of a cult. Olsen plays all of her confusion and confliction effortlessly, and whenever she’s in danger you’re practically reaching out at the screen to try and help her. The girl has acting chops beyond her years, and she looks like a young Diane Lane; I imagine she’s going to have a very bright career in front of her. She’ll probably have to field a bunch of stupid questions about what it was like to grow up with her sisters for a while, but it shouldn’t be long before she carves out her own niche and isn’t thought of in relation to Full House whatsoever. Instead she’ll be making small talk about all the awards that she’s won and which uber-talented director she’s going to be working with next (okay, and maybe still slipping in bits about the time she got to meet John Stamos every once in a while).
The two different story threads of the film, Marcy first being introduced into Patrick’s cult and Martha escaping it and trying to get on with her life, are told concurrently. The events from one bleed back and forth into the other, and I’ve never seen the tactic used so well. The visual transitions from timeline to timeline are up there with The Graduate as far as slick filmmaking goes, and the dreamlike way that we keep going back and forth from past to present expertly mimics the experience Martha is having trying to relate with normal society again after being inundated with so much weirdness for so long. Bits of this film can be really disorienting, which works to amp up the tension further. Plus, the whole thing is so expertly structured that what happens in one story is always coloring and illuminating what is happening concurrently in the other. Really, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a movie that was so well scripted. Martha Marcy May Marlene is something special.
There was one point, very briefly, where I thought the film might be losing me. Deep into the second act it starts to feel absurd that Martha is so obviously disturbed and traumatized, and yet the sister with which she is staying (Sarah Paulson) refuses to acknowledge it in a straight forward way and get her help. Martha’s behavior gets increasingly more window-licking crazy, but her sister thinks that she’s going to be able to keep throwing parties at her lake house and whatnot, pretending like nothing is happening, and eventually you just want to shake her and yell, “call a damn psychiatrist!” My frustrations didn’t last long though. I had about ten minutes of shaking my head and then she acquiesced to all of my requests, addressed all of my concerns, and paved the way for the film’s ending: it’s perfect, heart swallowing ending that erased any momentary concerns I might have had. Watching Martha Marcy May Marlene is an experience that is going to stick with me for a long time. As a matter of fact, I’m humming John Hawkes’ haunting ‘Marcy’s Song’ as I write this. Does anybody know where can I download the dang thing?
