Film Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Release Date: January 21st 2011.
Director: Sean Durkin.
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy.
Running Time: 102 Minutes.
Distributed By: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The film is both plot-twisting and genre bending. When you first start to watch it you think that you know what is going on straight away, but then as the film progresses you find out that what you once thought to be the general idea of the ending and substance behind the film, was totally wrong.

It starts off with the introduction to a girl. She is seen going out of a house that would be classed as possibly poverty ridden- lots of people sharing one room, farm-type location and all the people sharing everything they have. When the girl runs towards the forest, a man comes out the house and shouts "Marcy May, where you going?" This name is later contradicted, when she has escaped the forest and rings her sister, she is referred to as "Martha." This causes a sense of mystery, as the enigma of why is she using different names, is planted. The name "Marlene" is used later on, both in a flashback where she is still in the house, and when she calls them, whenever the phone rings, they use that name to ensure that the peoples identitites is kept hidden.

We later find out a string of shocking revelations about where she lived previously. The events seem to have scarred her mentally, making her exhibit some types of behavior that her friend she goes to live with, gradually begins to almost resent her for. The film is set out in a rather hectic manner, you see a lot of flashbacks from the various places that she has lived in before, and then the aftermath, what she behaves liek as a result of the things that she has dealt with.

The film ends with her friend offering to get her some kind of professional help, she agrees somewhat reluctantly. Then, at the very end of the film, she is sat at the back of a car, going to get said help, then the film abruptdly ends, with her fate yet undecided. This leaves a lot of space and room for you to decide what happens to her next, as the audience.

In my opinion, i think that the film was quite good because not all of the answers were given to you, and so you sortof had to piece the mystery together, and you kept getting contradicted, so you were always kept on the edge of your seat so to speak.
Rating: 3/5