Film Reviews

Martha Marcy May Marlene

• Rating:
• Director: Sean Durkin
• Starring: Elizabeth Olsen
• Details: US / 102mins (16).

The spirit of Kelly Reichardt pumps through Sean Durkin's debut, a low-key slow burning drama that likes to leave a lot unsaid. Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister to the twins, turns in a career-making performance and she's up against tough competition in Hawkes.
Martha (Olsen) escapes a commune to stay with older sister Lucy (Paulson) and her fiancé Ted (Dancy). At first happy to be free of the cult and it's leader Patrick (Hawkes), Martha comes to realise that re-joining society after spending two years off the map is tougher than expected and her behaviour rubs up against the materialistic Lucy and Ted. Through flashbacks to her time in the commune, where she is given the name Marcy May, the story builds to her reasons for escape…
Durkin likes to keep things implicit – Martha's reasons for running away to the commune first place are never explored, and the reasons why young adults flock to Patrick's farm and stay there to toil on the land are left off screen. Durkin is aware that the audience knows about Charles Manson (one scene apes the Tate murders) and other cult leaders so feels it's unnecessary to go into the details– Is the cult religious? Is it a Doom's Day? We never find out.
The role of Patrick works for and against Hawkes, who exceled in Winter's Bone. Durkin fails to give this skinny unshaven man in dirty jeans and vest any grand rallying speeches or at least a number of scenes to give Hawkes room and time to manoeuvre. Hawkes has very little work with so it's testament to his performance that Patrick is a character that burns its way into the memory; Hawkes is never fiery or loses his temper – he's a softly spoken genteel but wields an enormous power over his followers. That's tough to pull off with so little time and lines. Olsen is given more time to play with but has a more demanding job than Hawkes. Essentially playing two characters – the unsure escapee caught between two worlds, and the confused hopeful in the flashbacks – Olsen has to keep the majority of her feelings locked away and still let the audience know what's going on inside. That's tough to pull off too.
Leaving so much unsaid can make Martha… a frustrating watch at times. There is an unmistakeable rising tension but Durkin takes as long as possible moving up the gears and in between the big scenes, which are gripping, there is a lot of downtime. While it's easy to get on board with Martha's inappropriate mutterings on her host's well-to-do life - the movie seems to say that both ways of life have their own confines - it is tough to understand that two years on a farm would make one forget it's not okay to climb into bed while your sister and her husband have sex.
Martha Marcy May Marlene has an awkward title but there's a confident director calling the shots here. Expect more from him pretty soon.

Review by Gavin Burke