Martha Marcy May Marlene

SPOILERS!

Writer/director Sean Durkin proved with his 2011 drama MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE that he is a talent to watch, even if his film feels 1/2 to 3/4 baked.  Unfinished.  Frustrating as hell, but never not intriguing.  It is not fun to watch, not at all a pleasant experience, and unfortunately part of that is due to boredom.  A character study such as this should have involved us in every last scene, never wavered.  But it does, too often. Was Durkin distracted? Was he too ambitious with his film that alternates between present day and flashbacks, right to the end?

Admirably, he does not shy away from the uncomfortable nature of this story of a young woman named Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who escapes a weird cult in upstate New York and comes to live with her estranged sister and her new husband.  The cult is lead by a middle aged dude who deflowers his followers (and when they get pregnant, only allows boys) and mesmerizes his followers with his guitar.  Each new member is given a hallucinogenic drink, and (un)ceremoniously raped.  Martha awakens halfway through her ordeal, unsure of how to react.  She is assured by one of the other girls that it is a beautiful thing, a purification of the body.  Following the mantra of many 1960s communes, it is expected that one "shares oneself".  They live off their crops and sell knitted items for money.

But they also commit murder.  So they somewhat resemble a Charles Manson group, with at least one evily smiling female psycho.  This is the tipping point for Martha's departure, after much self-torture.  Lucy (Sarah Paulson) is shocked to get a call from her wayward sibling, who disappeared two years earlier.  Martha's re-entry into a more mainstream living space proves predictably difficult.  She forgets (never possessed?) the ability to act appropriately, like not putting her feet on a kitchen counter, not blurting out whatever is on her mind, and certainly not walking in on and lying in the bed of her sister and her husband while they're having sex.  Is Martha still bearing the fallout of her experience?  Traumatized beyond measure? Or was she always just plain fucked up?

Despite my misgivings, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE manages the past and present dance fairly well, even in later scenes, blurring which is which.  Some home invasion scenes were not (at first) entirely clear as to when they were taking place. Durkin does create some trippy hypnosis, mirroring what Martha might be experiencing.  Her story may just be a metaphor for every confused twenty-something who can't reconcile a life that paints by numbers: college-marriage-kids-house and the like.  The alternatives can be pretty bleak, though.