FILM REVIEW: MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Director:Sean Durkin
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson
Synopsis: MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a damaged woman haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, who struggles to reassimilate with her family after fleeing a cult.
Review: This film deserved to win the Best Director award at Sundance. The two stories managed to intersect effectively. For the most part this overlap was well handled, however on the third or fourth transition from “then” to “now” it did become tiresome for this reviewer.
Visually it was rich and confronting. Jody Lee Lipes provided rich visual content that complemented the narrative. However as Primate has always said, good cinematography does not a good movie make. This was the case with MARCY.
The subject matter was as confronting as the visuals. The film smacked of art house pomp that was attempting to capture an audience through shock and awe rather than decent storytelling.
The “other Olsen Sister” (Elizabeth) in the lead is flouncey but ultimately engaging. The audience is suckered in to believing she looks like a real person, paving way for the “swan” transformation that occurs. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy do well in supporting roles as a realistic married couple. Dancy did great work as an Aspergers sufferer in ADAM, and he delivers a chiselled macho performance here with equal conviction.
John Hawkes starred in the Sundance winner WINTERS BONE and behaves much the same way here too. It does suit him however, though this is a disappointment as the Primate would like to see him venture outside his comfort zone a little.
This is another “festival film” that will light up the independent cinema but, do very little else. Director Sean Dukin, in this his debut feature has taken a leap of blind faith, presumably hoping he shocks enough people to be remembered, but not too many as to alienate his yet-to-be cultivated audience.
This reviewer can’t say that “like” is a word that he’d associate with such a gritty subject matter, but memories of the film linger.
