Martha Marcy May Marlene

There are some films that warm your soul, stretch your brain or just make you feel something, whether it be anguish, fear, laughter or empathy. When a film leaves you feeling nothing, that's a worrying sign...

The film is about Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who has had a difficult and challenging childhood (the details of which are not revealed) and in order to escape her life, enters in a cult ran by Patrick (John Hawkes).

The cult is portrayed in the usual clichèd way, an enigmatic leader who rules the followers using violence and charisma. There is the sexual openness as well as sexual abuse that nobody questions. The girls are renamed by Patrick (again this isn't really explained why) and Martha is renamed Marcy May.

After two years Martha decides to escape the cult and she calls her older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) to come and pick her up. Lucy then takes her to the house by the river where she is staying with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy).

The films alternates between Martha's current life with her sister and episodes of her life within the cult. As her mental state declines, Martha becomes more and more paranoid that Patrick is going to come and get her.  Martha's erratic behaviour causes tension between herself, Ted and Lucy and eventually leads them to consider taking Martha to get professional help.

I am going to start with the good things about this film. The first is the excellent acting by Olsen (not something you usually associate with that surname). She really is destined for great things and I look forward to seeing what she does next. The second thing is that the film is beautifully shot and looks exquisite.

We've a lot to cover in the bad things: Firstly, there is no backstory whatsoever. We have no idea what happened in Martha's childhood so the ability to empathise and rationalise her behaviour is lost. There is no present story either. The film is literally a selection of 'things' that do not link together in any real coherent way. The film is far too long and far too slow. I am guessing that it was slow to build tension. You need a story in order to build tension. At no point did it look as though Patrick was going to come after Martha. So you have no tension.

As for Martha's erratic behaviour, it honestly seems more like a teenager having a strop rather than real mental disturbance. When I say this, I am referring to the dialogue and the direction, not the performance of Olsen. The cult activities were shown in a very clichèd manner and was full of so much hippy bull-shit that there were members of the audiences chuckling.

The ending was awful.

There genuinely is nothing worse than a film that makes you feel nothing and that's what I felt.

Verdict: An ambiguously annoying and pointless film. Olsen and Hawkes delivered fantastic performances and deserved a better script and direction for their efforts. Oh and a story as well...