Plot
A 22-year-old woman named Martha has been abused by a cult in the Catskill Mountains for two years. The patriarch, Patrick, named her Marcy May. She escapes into the woods, arriving at a nearby town. In a diner, she is confronted by Watts, a cult member, who attempts to persuade her to return, but when she refuses, he lets her leave. Martha calls her sister, Lucy, who picks her up and takes her to the vacation lake house in Connecticut that she shares with her husband, a successful architect named Ted.
Martha exhibits strange behavior by skinny dipping in public, sleeping all the time, not eating, and arguing with Lucy and Ted about how to live, specifically arguing over the need for career and possessions. Lucy reveals she abandoned Martha and is now attempting to get her back into her life, while she and Ted are also trying to have their own child. One night, Martha climbs into bed with Ted and Lucy while they are having sex, angering Ted and Lucy. Martha attempts to phone the cult because she misses them, but she hangs up when cult matriarch Katie answers using the code name "Marlene Lewis".
In flashbacks, Martha recalls a series of disturbing events that led to her escape from the cult. She became a member through her friend, Zoe. She was initially receptive but somewhat wary of Patrick, Katie, and Zoe. She was later convinced by Zoe and Patrick to let her guard down and "share herself", only to end up being drugged by Katie and brutally raped by Patrick; Katie and Zoe later explained to her that the rape was a cleansing ritual and told her she should be happy. Patrick later urged Martha to kill a cat, which Martha refused. Her refusal prompted him to berate her for failing to follow the cult's ideals. Patrick constantly attempted to impregnate Martha to spread his genes, despite her resistance. Martha subsequently began participating in burglaries with the other cultists, including one where they murdered a homeowner who walked in on them. After witnessing the murder, Martha had a mental breakdown, to which Patrick responded by forcefully subduing her and berating her again; he then shifted to telling her that she is his favorite person and that he will never let her go.
Lucy and Ted host a party at their home, inviting numerous friends from the city. Martha is visibly nervous during the gathering, and she has a psychotic episode when she misidentifies the bartender as a cult member, and she needs to be sedated. Ted attempts to convince Lucy to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, an idea Lucy rejects.
Later that night, Martha has a nightmare of being sexually abused by Patrick, Ted tries to calm her down, but Martha, thinking he is Patrick, kicks him down the staircase in a frightened panic.
Lucy threatens to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, to which Martha angrily responds that Lucy will be a terrible mother. The next day, Lucy and Martha somewhat reconcile, and Martha goes swimming. She sees a man resembling Patrick watching her from the opposite shore.
When Martha departs for the psychiatric hospital with Lucy and Ted, the same man darts in front of their car on foot, then follows them in his black SUV as Marcy watches from the backseat of the car in fear.
Production
Sean Durkin started writing the script of Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2007. [4] When researching his script, Durkin read about what he calls "the big ones" of cults: Jonestown, the Manson family, the Unification Church of the United States and David Koresh. He realised he wanted to make something more experiential than political and downplayed the ideology and goals of the cult. [5]
While researching, Durkin became fascinated by how someone gets into the farm, commune, or group, and he made a short film of the name Mary Last Seen about it, starring Brady Corbet, who plays cult recruiter Watts, in both the short and feature films. Mary Last Seen won the award for best short film at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight. While Mary Last Seen was about how someone gets into the cult, Martha Marcy May Marlene was about what happens to someone when they exit. Durkin made the short to show the world Martha was in and also with the intent to send it out with the script for Martha Marcy May Marlene to potential investors. [4] Mary Last Seen was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, and Durkin was given a distribution deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures. [6]
Durkin and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes were inspired by the films Rosemary's Baby , 3 Women , Klute , Interiors , and Margot at the Wedding . The look of the film was particularly inspired by the last film. [7]
Elizabeth Olsen admitted that her nude scenes were a bit odd to film, but she said that simply diving into the water was far more perilous than taking her clothes off, in front of a camera, because "The lake was daunting, and in some lake scenes, we could only shoot once, because physically, it was too cold for a body to be in there very long." [8]
Reception
Martha Marcy May Marlene received positive reviews, with Olsen's performance as the traumatized Martha met with critical acclaim; the film holds a 90% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus capsule stating, "Led by a mesmerizing debut performance from Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a distinctive, haunting psychological drama." [16] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [17]
Christy Lemire of the Associated Press named Martha Marcy May Marlene the best film of 2011. [18] Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing Olsen as "a genuine discovery ... She has a wide range of emotions to deal with here, and in her first major role, she seems instinctively to know how to do that." Ebert's only major complaint was that the movie's chronological shifts were "a shade too clever. In a serious film, there is no payoff for trickery." [19] In contrast, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian felt that the flashbacks were "cleverly and indirectly" structured throughout the film, and ultimately rated it with four stars out of five. [20]
