...that nonetheless falters in the wake of a half-hearted script, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" benefits as much from Elizabeth "Silent House" Olsen's impressive performance as it does anything else. Ms. Olsen is perfectly cast, her doughy prettiness an apt fit for Martha, the proverbial calf led to slaughter that has somehow managed to break free from the killing floor. One can easily imagine her cranking out cult babies left and right as she spreads maternally while drawing more and more damaged young women into her leader's clutches. That her character instead summons the wherewithal to escape those clutches lends wonderful power to the proceedings; even as we yearn to shake this dazed and confused little cow out of her soporific paranoia and wretchedness, we marvel at the strength it took her to get away from the hell into which she'd fallen. If only she'd been able to maintain that gumption in some effort to seek further help; I half expected her to either dumbly return to perdition or perhaps let herself sink into the lake next to her sister's vacation home when she spied the apparition of her recent oppressor.
Point being, Ms. Olsen reveals herself as a talent to watch, far more interesting than her currently more famous sisters. The rest of the cast are no slouches, either. John "Deadwood" Hawkes delivers another well-inhabited character as the Manson-ish cult leader; I never cease to be impressed by his abilities. Likewise, Sarah "American Gothic" Paulson and Hugh "Black Hawk Down" Dancy as Martha's estranged sister and her husband trying to deal with the sudden reappearance of Martha's damaged goods, along with Brady "Funny Games" Corbet as the sleazy, vacuous agent of Martha's entrapment in cult life, provide strong foils for Ms. Olsen's descent into helplessness. Truthfully, the entire cast is as capable as one could ask.
In the end, though, it's the script that renders the film less than the sum of its parts. Its substance is too derivative (the cult and its leader too Manson-like for their own good) and a little too sketchy as well, Martha's backstory is almost non-existent, as are the details of the cult she's joined. For lack of a better term, everything's too facile. How do these people survive, how do they get by? What motivates them to stay together, never mind their malevolent dictator's supposed charisma? No doubt the writer/director's intentions were to raise these questions (among many others) and purposefully leave them to our collective imagination. All well and good, but it reduces the film to an inadequate character portrait, one that leaves us sympathizing far more with the frustrated sister and husband than the sad little heifer who managed to escape the axe. And that, I think, is distinctly not what auteur Durkin wanted.
At any rate, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" remains a strong calling card for its creator and its star, ripe with promises of greater things to come. I deem it worth a watch by anyone interested in the flowering of young talent, even it if has little in the way of repeat viewability.
Point being, Ms. Olsen reveals herself as a talent to watch, far more interesting than her currently more famous sisters. The rest of the cast are no slouches, either. John "Deadwood" Hawkes delivers another well-inhabited character as the Manson-ish cult leader; I never cease to be impressed by his abilities. Likewise, Sarah "American Gothic" Paulson and Hugh "Black Hawk Down" Dancy as Martha's estranged sister and her husband trying to deal with the sudden reappearance of Martha's damaged goods, along with Brady "Funny Games" Corbet as the sleazy, vacuous agent of Martha's entrapment in cult life, provide strong foils for Ms. Olsen's descent into helplessness. Truthfully, the entire cast is as capable as one could ask.
In the end, though, it's the script that renders the film less than the sum of its parts. Its substance is too derivative (the cult and its leader too Manson-like for their own good) and a little too sketchy as well, Martha's backstory is almost non-existent, as are the details of the cult she's joined. For lack of a better term, everything's too facile. How do these people survive, how do they get by? What motivates them to stay together, never mind their malevolent dictator's supposed charisma? No doubt the writer/director's intentions were to raise these questions (among many others) and purposefully leave them to our collective imagination. All well and good, but it reduces the film to an inadequate character portrait, one that leaves us sympathizing far more with the frustrated sister and husband than the sad little heifer who managed to escape the axe. And that, I think, is distinctly not what auteur Durkin wanted.
At any rate, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" remains a strong calling card for its creator and its star, ripe with promises of greater things to come. I deem it worth a watch by anyone interested in the flowering of young talent, even it if has little in the way of repeat viewability.