Martha Marcy May Marlene

Overview

Guaranteed to darken the brightest of days (albeit in one of those achingly artistic, ‘wow, that was so clever, wasn’t it?’ type of ways), comes Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, a 29 year-old American who executed this directorial debut so courageously that it scored him Sundance’s Best Director award last year.

Be warned: using the term dark is totally sugar-coating the shadows this film casts, which linger long (like days, in all seriousness) after the credits have rolled. Centered around a young woman who is returning to life after escaping a cult, the story offers a warts-and-all look into the fragility of the human psyche. Martha, played by girl-of-the-moment Elizabeth Olsen (a worthy tag given this alarmingly convincing first-time performance), struggles to adjust to the world her sister and British husband live in. She sees barely any sense in clothing and seeks comfort in their love-making, snuggling up beside the couple mid-going at it. But that’s really all we see of the world Martha is attempting to reconnect with. Everything else Durkin offers up is straight out of Martha’s mind: an utterly confused, helplessly empty universe. Her warped state of being is so brilliantly brought to life that viewers won’t know whether or not what they’re watching is real. And that’s the most terrifying part.

Sure, the cult looks pretty freaky. We switch from the ‘real’ world to Martha’s memories of her cult buddies throughout the entire film. Those cult kids are full of slow head-tilts, vacant stares and unnecessary smirks, and they get up to plenty of weird mischief. But it’s Martha’s inability to separate her nightmares from reality that really put her in danger. And when our protagonist isn’t sure about anything, who on earth are we to rely on?

Durkin’s masterful use of suspense deserves a nod from the Academy, for real. John Hawkes, who plays the cult’s leader, deserves props of the similar variety for his scary-as-shit blend of charming and terrorising. But most of all, the pairing of Olsen and Durkin just seems to click. Could we have here yet another muse-director relationships of cult appeal? Perhaps. But please, don’t use that word with me ever again.