Martha Marcy May Marlene, confusing by name, and even more confusing by nature. A fine full-length feature film (the alliteration is catching on) directorial debut by Sean Durkin, MMMM drifts seamlessly between the past and the present often leaving the audience as confused as the main character herself. Elizabeth Olsen gives a stunning performance as a vulnerable girl who after becoming entranced by the charms of a sinister cult leader, John Hawkes, finds that even after she manages to get away she may never really escape from what happened to her there.
The use of colour grading throughout is gorgeous; with moody blues and pine greens to match the rurality of where Martha resided with the cult, to more pink and yellow tones for her present haven at her estranged sister's luxury holiday home (although as the film progresses we begin to realise that this does not necessarily imply that Martha's ordeal is over).
The only substantial piece of music used, save for a tumultuous instrumental accompanying Martha's breakdown, is a genuinely haunting melody sung by John Hawkes himself, both beautiful and heartbreakingly sad.
The marketing for this film was amazing, with one of the best film posters and accompanying trailer that I've seen for a long time:
It's got such a wispy feel to it which fits the atmosphere of the film perfectly, mirroring the hazy flashbacks that Martha experiences effectively suggesting detached, abstract, half forgotten memories.
The audience, rather than being taken on a roller coaster of emotion is coaxed onto an eerie ghost train, and is left with a lingering sense of unease, sifting through the fragments of Martha's troubled reality and even more troubled memory.
