A 22-year-old woman named Martha has been living as a member of a cult in the Catskill Mountains for some time. The charismatic cult leader, Patrick, granted her the name Marcy May upon her initiation. However, she decides to flee, and escapes into the woods, arriving at a nearby town. In a diner, she is confronted by Watts, a cult member, who attempts to persuade her to return, but she refuses. Martha calls her sister Lucy, who picks her up and takes her to the vacation lake house in Connecticut that she shares with her husband, a successful and wealthy architect named Ted. While staying with Lucy and Ted at the lake house, Martha begins exhibiting strange behavior: swimming in a public lake naked, sleeping all the time, not eating, and arguing with her sister and brother-in-law about how to live. Lucy reveals she abandoned Martha and is now attempting to get her back into her life, while she and Ted are also trying to have their own child. One night, Martha climbs into bed with Ted and Lucy while they are having sex, angering Ted. Martha then attempts to phone the cult, but hangs up when one of the female members answer using the code nameMarlene Lewis. In flashbacks, Martha recalls a series of disturbing events that led to her escape the cult: While a member, she was drugged and raped by Patrick in an initiation ritual, which she later facilitated for other incoming female members. Patrick would later urge her to murder a cat, which she refused to do. She subsequently began participating in burglaries with the other cultists, one of which culminated in a struggle with a homeowner, in which the homeowner was brutally stabbed to death. Upon witnessing the murder, Martha had a mental breakdown before Patrick forcefully subdued her and berated her for her failing to follow the cult's ideals. Lucy and Ted host a party at their home, inviting numerous friends from the city. Martha is visibly nervous during the gathering, and has a psychotic episode when she misidentifies the bartender as a cult member, and has to be sedated. Ted attempts to convince Lucy to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, an idea Lucy rejects. Later that night, Martha has a nightmare and a panic attack. Ted tries to help her, but Martha kicks him down the staircase. Lucy threatens to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, to which Martha angrily responds that Lucy will be a terrible mother. The next day, Lucy and Martha reconcile somewhat, and Martha goes swimming. She sees a male cult member watching her across the shore, and leaves the water. When Martha departs the house with Lucy and Ted, she looks behind from the backseat as a car follows them.
Cast
Production
Sean Durkin started writing script of Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2007. When researching his script, Durkin read about what he calls "the big ones" of cults: Jonestown, the Manson family, the Unification Church of the United States and David Koresh. He realised he wanted to make something more experiential than political and downplayed the ideology and goals of the cult. While researching, Durkin became fascinated by how someone gets into the farm or commune or group, and made a short film of the name Mary Last Seen about it starring Brady Corbet, who plays cult recruiter Watts in both the short and feature films. Mary Last Seen won the award for best short film at the 2010 Cannes Film FestivalDirectors' Fortnight. While Mary Last Seen was about how someone gets into the cult, Martha Marcy May Marlene was about what happens to someone when they get out of it. Durkin made the short to show the world Martha was in, and also with the intent to send it out with the script for Martha Marcy May Marlene to potential investors. Mary Last Seen was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, and Durkin was given a distribution deal with Fox Searchlight. Durkin and DPJody Lee Lipes were inspired by the films Rosemary's Baby, 3 Women, Klute, Interiors, and Margot at the Wedding. The look of the film was particularly inspired by the last film.
The film received highly positive reviews, with Olsen's performance as the traumatized Martha met with critical acclaim; the film holds a 89% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus capsule stating, "Led by a mesmerizing debut performance from Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a distinctive, haunting psychological drama." On Metacritic the film has a 76 out of 100 "Metascore". Christy Lemire of the Associated Press named Martha Marcy May Marlenethe best film of 2011. Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing Olsen as "a genuine discovery... She has a wide range of emotions to deal with here, and in her first major role, she seems instinctively to know how to do that." Ebert's only major complaint was that the movie's chronological shifts were "a shade too clever. In a serious film, there is no payoff for trickery."
