A young woman tries to reconnect with her sister while being plagued by memories of her recent experience in an abusive cult.
Cast - Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson
Genre - Drama, Thriller
Runtime - 102 min
Woah, yes the Olsen Twin's have a little sister and boy, can she act! Maybe I shouldn't seem so down on the twins as I secretly loved them (Who didn't love "It Takes Two"?). But whereas the Olsen twins really only seem to play themselves in my mind, the younger sister, Elizabeth Olsen, is totally fresh and unbranded. Which is why she is completely, and almost terrifyingly, believable as the young Martha Marcy May Marlene.
I had absolutely no idea what this film was about. I'd seen it had gotten pretty decent reviews and had heard the buzzword "cult" associated with it. But other then that, I had zero conceptions about it. I was a little worried that my boyfriend would find it completely boring, and I was about 99% sure I was right when half an hour into the movie, he still hadn't said a word. I was sure he was asleep. When I glanced over and saw that he was only silent because he seemed to be fully taken in by the movie thus far, I was impressed.
It's not exactly a thriller in the traditional sense, but the entire movie fills you with unease. There's not often actually much going on from scene to scene, but something always just feels wrong. There's something bad coming, you can sense it the whole time ("why can't she see it coming?" you think) and you feel nervous and uncomfortable. And it's not just when she flashes back to her experiences with the cult that are uneasy, it's everything, even when you think it's going to be better for her.
The flashbacks to the cult and the scenes from reality blur together dizzily. Every new scene you are unsure whether she's back in the cult or if she's in her present with her older sister. At first, I found it a bit annoying. I continuously felt confused and lost, but that's exactly the point. Martha is having a hard time assimilating to her free life outside the cult. She was abused, brainwashed, and maybe most painfully, accepted. Now she isn't always sure what's real. And she has certainly lost track of what's considered appropriate in our society.
This movie is compelling on so many levels. Nothing really happens, and yet for 102 minutes you sit there, knots in your stomach, scared, uncomfortable, and mesmerised. As a young woman I feel like I could connect with her on some level. You do sit there wondering "how does anyone get sucked into something like that?". But if you were ever a teenage girl just needing a place to fit in, then you know how she could get pulled into a cult (we just called them cliques).
Overall rating: 8/10
Watch the Martha Marcy May Marlene trailer here, then give the movie a chance. It will steal your breath away.
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