Martha Marcy May Marlene at London Film Festival

Martha Marcy May Marlene at London Film Festival

11 October, 2011
by: Naima Khan

Elizabeth Olsen stars in Sean Durkin's debut feature-length film.

Elizabeth Olsen does ‘off-beat’ in that wide-eyed manner learned at the Maggie Gyllenhaal school of acting; all sheepish smiles and inappropriate, frank language. In Martha, Marcy May, Marlene, she plays one girl with three names and no concept of what ‘normal’ is.

Drawn into a cult as a teenager, Martha becomes Marcy May and learns about sex and relationships from the manipulative, sexist Patrick who preaches about the ‘cleansing’ and why pain is good. Their communal way of living out in the Catskills of New York robs the individuals of any sense of ownership over possessions, food or their time. Plagued by the notion that she should always appear to be doing something for everyone else and “share” herself in every way possible, she lives off the land in a brown-green haze before she reaches breaking point and goes to live with her upper-middle class sister Lucy.

Now living in the comfort of Lucy’s wealth with her kind, but consumerist husband Hugh Dancy, Martha struggles to re-learn societal norms and put aside the fear of being hunted down by the cult. Director Sean Durkin splices scenes of bright, tense happiness at Lucy’s with awkward scenes of manipulation from Martha’s cult days.

With Elizabeth Olsen’s performance delicate and wise under his direction, Durkin puts this tried and tested method of revealing a fractured mindset to effective use.  The messy chronology of the film provides enough of a dank picture of the Catskills while leaving a good amount of murky history unexplained for our imaginations to feast off.

But this film isn't quite worth all the attention it's getting. As Martha argues ineffectually with Dancy about the right way to live and Lucy tells her that sex is normally private, you come to realise that all the dialogue feels predictable and dull. And though the notion of Martha and Lucy's difficult past prior to her cult days is intriguing, Durkin doesn't allow it enough screen time. What he gives you is a cleverly shot picture of a girl trying to remember how the world works.

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Naima Khan