Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene

A very interesting performance by Elizabeth Olsen in the leading role and great acting overall from all the people involved.

Plot:

Follows a young woman and her struggles with assimilating to a regular life after being involved with a cult.

Review:

Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) flees an abusive and manipulative cult lead by Patrick (John Hawkes). After several years of being off-the-grid, she calls her estranged sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) to pick her up from a bus shelter. Lucy then brings her to the idyllic lakeside cottage she and her new husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) owns, where they imagine to spend time when not being in the city.

Adjusting to a normal life is hard as Martha struggles with memories coming back to haunt her and where she is quite confused on how to behave and whether or not she's actually managed to escape. The clash between Martha and her sisters completely different lifestyles is very telling and brings an interesting contrast. How Martha behaves quite unconventionally, atleast in her sister and husbands eyes and where they try to have patience with her.

The narrative is jumping between past and present in a non-confusing way and is quite brilliantly done. This is a spectacular movie simply because its very hard not to be affected by it. Its very uncomfortable and daunting throughout. The cult leader Hawkes does not overdo his character but stays in a very unpleasant but calm and relaxed character which makes him very belieavable.

Trailer:



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