Available on Blu-ray and DVD on February 21, 2012 is the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Martha Marcy May Marlene stars an up and coming Hollywood “It Girl” Elizabeth Olsen. Elizabeth is the younger sister of the world’s most famous twins, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Don’t let the fact that Elizabeth is their Olsen twin’s younger sister fool you. Her acting ability goes well beyond the “lollipop and gumdrops” acting abilities of her sisters. Elizabeth has much more of a “reach” with her acting abilities.
Martha Marcy May Marlene is the story of Martha (Olsen) who seemed to just “disappear”. Her friends and sister Lucy (played by Sarah Paulson) had no idea whatever happened to Martha.
Martha has been living in a commune as part of an abusive cult, tucked away in the Catskill Mountains where no one could find them. The cult was trying to make themselves self-sufficient so that they would not need to be a part of the outside world.
At first Martha seemed to enjoy spending time with the other cult members, but you can tell that she wasn’t fully committed to them or their way of life. Before long Martha was sucked into their “family” and way of life, even though she soon realized that being with the cult was not where she wanted to be. She had to deal with rape, abuse, crime and even murder.
Martha felt so “lost” in the cult. She wasn’t even called her real name. The cult leader, Patrick (John Hawkes) called her Marcy May. All of the cult women had to answer the phone with the name Marlene (I never fully understood why).
One day Martha finally had enough and she fled from the compound. Once in town she placed a phone call to her sister Lucy who quickly drove the three hours from her Connecticut cabin to pick Martha up and bring her back home with her and her new husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy).
Trying to assimilate back into the “real world”, outside of the cult, was difficult for Martha. At first she seemed to be doing well. She did have a hard time leaving her cult life behind her, however she tried her best to become “normal” again.
In my opinion things seemed to go down hill one night when Martha entered her sister’s room while she was making love to her husband and lied down on the end of the bed. Lucy’s husband make comments about how Martha was “not normal”. I think that might have been part of the reason why Martha started to unravel quickly after that incident. Maybe Martha did see herself as abnormal.
As time went on Martha became more and more paranoid that the cult, most especially Patrick, was watching her every move. This caused Martha to act crazy and really disturbed.
Wat the cult after Martha? Or was it just her imagination? Will she ever regain a sense of normalcy or is she destined to return to the cult? To learn the answers to these questions you’ll need to pick up a copy of Martha Marcy May Marlene on Blu-ray or DVD on February 21, 2012.
The movie is rated R for nudity (although it was more like partical nudity), rape (I saw it as rape – but others might just say sex) and language. It is NOT a family friendly film.
The movie was not at all what I expected from the trailers I have seen. But it was still an interesting film.
I would consider this a some what “artsy” type film. There are some scenes which seem out of place to me, and other scenes where there is a long silence.
The film bounces around from present day to her time with the cult. Sometimes I got confused as to what part of her life I was looking at.
I found the cult part of her life terrifying. It scares the heebie jeebies out of me knowing that there really are cults out there that pray on lost and lonely men and women. In fact there is a bonus featurette included in the movie that shows how one young woman name May ended up in the grips of a cult.
This is a dark film meaning that it’s very deep. I would classify this as a psychological thriller/drama.
I enjoyed the film. There were a few scenes I could have done without, but I understand their importance to the film and storyline.
Elizabeth Olsen did a fantastic job. Your heart really went out to her. I also think that Sarah Paulson did a fantastic job as the concerned sister trying to understand what could have happened to her younger sister and how to “fix” her.
For more information you can check out the official site, www.FoxSearchLight.com/MarthaMarcyMayMarelene.
Here is the movie’s trailer for your convenience. You can also view it by CLICKING HERE.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.