Martha Marcy May Marlene
Director: Sean Durkin
Writer: Sean Durkin
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) has been living with a sect for the past two years when she breaks free and returns to her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and her fiancé Ted (Hugh Dancy). But just leaving the cult doesn’t get rid of Martha’s scars. So she slowly and painfully starts the process of getting reacquainted with society as we know it.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is an excellent and really, really scary movie. Only the ending can’t keep up with the rest of the film and is a bit disappointing.

Sean Durkin shows a lot of promise. It really is a very good debut. He tells his story calmly and succinctly and the pacing falters only in a couple of places. There are just a few moments where you feel his lack of experience. One is the ending that doesn’t really satisfy. And the other would be how he escalates the cult: [SPOILER] the robbing and the murder weren’t really necessary. [/SPOILER] In fact, the escalation hurt a little bit, since the film is at its most effective in the quiet moments.

And that cult is really, really scary because its really, really realistic. And so very ugly. Makes me shudder just to think about it.

And John Hawkes really was the perfect guy to play that cult leader. [But then he fills most roles perfectly.] And he even knows how to sing. The rest of the cast was pretty good as well but they don’t quite reach him. And Hugh Dancy’s Ted is actually pretty creepy when he isn’t supposed to be (I think). I was just waitng for Ted to hurt Martha.

But altogether it’s a really good film.

On a sidenote: There is one scene where Martha goes swimming in a lake where nobody else is around and she simply undresses completely for that. Her sister has a minor meltdown of “how can you dare to go skinny dipping” which I just found hilariously USAmerican. I don’t think that this would have caused such a reaction in an Austrian. They might disapprove as much, but they wouldn’t say so aloud.

Summarising: Very nice and definitely recommended.