The initial poster liked it, but I'm censoring it due to several what I consider to be spoilers. Sorry, bwood. I'll repost your review below properly labeled.

I did a search and saw nothing. If there is another post redirect me.

Saw this shit two weeks ago.

First off who knew Elizabeth Olsen had some big titties? I didn't and wouldn't expect to either judging with her clothes on.

Man is this some creepy tense filled shit. As my moderator said to John Hawkes during the Q&A his character is a nice blend of creepy, evil, and smooth. It's amazing how his character Patrick easily brainwashes the members of his cult to do some seriously disgusting and despicable shit.

Part of the reason the tension runs high throughout this film is Elizabeth Olsen. Her character Martha is seriously fucked up from what happened at the cult and her twisted psyche and trouble adapting back into the fold of normal life makes this shit dummy tense. The story is told from her point of view, so Martha's paranoia is transplanted on the audience very effectively due to her performance and the structure of the film.

Also the structure of the film makes this tense too. The film flashes back to the past to show the time in the cult and shows the now in the present. Watching the layers of the flashback with the ever increasing situation in the present makes the film alot more interesting as if it would have a normal narrative.

The score is fucking creepy and unnerving and adds that third layer that builds upon the tension.

Now with that all said Hugh Dancy's character is a fucking douche. Martha is obviously fucked in the head and what does he do in one scene, wakes her up in the middle of the night and chases her around the house and acts like a victim when she kicks him down the stairs. When he's introduced you could tell this dude was going to be a prick.

Also, the abrupt ending is gonna piss some people off. But this has sparked conversations that have go on forever on have they or haven't they.

What's interesting to note is that Sean Durkin has talked to real cult members who escaped and has said what Martha experiences in the film, is what some of them have experienced for two months to even two years after escaping. Imagine living like that for two years. It was hard experiencing that for two hours...

The spoilers he included made me want to see the movie LOL

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

the song:

http://recordinglivefromsomewhere.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/john-hawkes-marcys-song-jackson-c-frank-cover-from-the-2011-sundance-hit-martha-marcy-may-marlene/

John Hawkes is the man.

Maybe some will disagree with me, or maybe there'll be a backlash from all this praise, but I was really, really impressed by Olson here. Incredible screen presence. Like, magnetic. That combined with her somewhat naturalistic style literally conjured up memories of, like, 'Five Easy Pieces' Nicholson or something, as crazy as that might sound. I'm not saying she's in that Nicholson or early Pacino class or anything, but she was damn good. The movie succeeds in large part due to her and Hawkes.

I thought the movie itself was really strong too. I've seen some people complain a little about the deliberately confusing cutting back and forth between the past and the present, but I think it was pretty effective in showing how Martha's mind is consumed with those memories/nightmares and how they basically render her incapable of having a "normal" life.


SPOILERS:


I liked the ending. I don't always like that "cut to black" trick, but in this case I thought it worked. The last few minutes let the audience know exactly how Martha felt, and how she'd feel the rest of her life until she gets help. Paranoid, fearful, not knowing what's going to happen. Again, Olson's acting here is great. She's paranoid - she knows she's paranoid - she's trying to suppress it - but she's not totally able to.

My gf is still shaken by it. She keeps quivering with fear. She was a psychology major who is severely effed up by how easily the mind can be brainwashed and how one never truly escapes something like that.

Olsen and Hawkes deserve nods for this flick. Hawkes definitely deserves the statue he was deserving of a year ago. Can't believe he followed up such a dark role with an even darker one.

The story of a young woman played by Elizabeth Olsen attempting to leave behind the life and ways she adopted from a cult she once belonged to.

The movie starts with her calling her sister for help to get away from the cult and its leader. She has now taken refuge with her unknowing sister in her home. Her sister is a very logical, college educated, and pretty straight-laced person. Her sister's boyfriend is also there in the home. He's also educated, well centered, and cultured, but not as straight laced as his girlfriend. Given this particular scenario, there are instances of confusion, conflict, and just plain weirdness that transpires between the trio as they live under the same roof.

The life Olsen lived with the cult was a very communal driven experience, whereas all of the women had sex with (and raped by) the leader of the cult. They all have roles within their cult and they live together. The cult also has a violent side that couples with hippie-like behavior, so there is passive-aggressiveness everywhere. This actually creates the mystique the cult and its leader possess.

Olsen never tells her sister she was in the cult at all. Her sister believes she just disappeared for 2 years and is now back. The effects from having been abused in the cult, and adopting its way of life mentally, manifests in Olsen's behavior when she's living with her sister and her boyfriend. These instances of communal life beliefs, and mentally disturbed passive aggressive behaviors drive the movie.

Knowing of the evil the cult was capable of, presents the danger in the movie. Olsen called the cult on the phone from her sister's house AFTER she left them and was living with her sister. She started to fear they would find her and come back and get her. This fear created the tension and fear in the movie, and it fueled her paranoid and new mentally challenged psyche and behavior.

Olsen's performance in the movie was excellent. The intimacy and tension in the movie was also excellent. The movie is NOT very creepy. It is NOT very scary, or thrilling. There are times where the movie can be considered slow. Don't expect a roller-coaster ride. There were however, pockets of tension and anticipation. All of the characters were interesting and complex. The acting and the cast was great.

The ending for this movie was HORRIBLE. It was worse than HORRIBLE. It was one of those endings to a movie where you look around and wait for Ashton Kutcher to run at you laughing with his camera because you just got Punked! Its as if they ran out of money and called it a wrap. It was as if the editing destroyed the rest of the film and they had to punch in the credits at the part where the movie was actually getting exciting. It was bad. And you will be mad. You will want to watch all the credits go by expecting that it was done on purpose and the movie isn't actually over because its gonna continue after the credits. But it doesn't. Its sort of unbelievable.

Overall, Olsen's performance and the directing was on point. She was stellar. The acting and characters were great. Everything was believable. But, the ending just pulls the rug out from under you so so bad, that you really can't recommend it to anyone and feel good about it. If you go into knowing this, and don't mind, then go see it. If you HATE endings like that, stay far far away.

i had no problem with it. i mean, you knew that there was no way the ending was going to be "happy". i actually thought it was going to end with her drowning herself. but i think the ending was in keeping with the rest of the film in that she is detached, has trouble telling what's real & what's not, and is going to live with that kind of paranoia for a long time, perhaps forever.

if walking around screen looking detached and lost and crumbling into a fetal position every 10min is GREAT acting, i need to push some of my nieces in that direction. In all seriousness Olsen held it down, I definitely felt i was watching a young woman experience the trauma of being raped, manipulated, and witnessing a murder, BUT it did not have the grit, gravitas or internal machinations of say Michelle in Blue Valentine or Portman in Black Swan.

the film overall was well executed. i enjoyed how it fluidly moved from the life on the farm, to her life in her sisters home to further immerse the viewer in Martha's anxiety and distress. The dread was also carried very well throughout, in particular by another brilliant performance by Hawkes. What a fucn magnetic scumbag creep. The screen was absorbed by his warped-libertarian man of power whenever he appeared on screen. Maria Dizzia as Katie was also a great creepo performance.

Unlike most indy films of the recent times, I liked that shit was actually happening: from her rape, to the scene with her sister fucking, to the murder, but I PERSONALLY needed some resolution. I'm not one to trip about unresolved conflict in films, but here it left the film roaming in an incomplete atmosphere that subverts all of Olsen's emotionality. If we are not going to really get a back story on the two sisters, or have her reveal to her sister what she just went through, and only get random allusions to the farm cult coming, lets have Martha, her sister and hubby finally deal with said cult. Th ending was a cop out to me

anyway 3.5/5

I disagree about the ending. While the soap opera fan in us would love to see the story play out in a serial fashion, there is no escape for Martha. She is haunted. She is traumatized. And while she may go on with her life, she'll never escape the grasp the cult has on her and her psyche. She's fucked. Unless she fully accepts massive psychological treatment, she will continue to be a victim, being stalked by visions of her past.

that's how i interpreted and accepted the ending.

at TIFF after the screening, when someone asked him about the ending. He said (not his exact words) that the (psychological) problems Martha has is something she will likely deal with the rest of her life, and is something he couldn't (or didn't want to?) wrap up.

I was satisfied with the ending, his explanation, and I think your interpretation is sound.



>I disagree about the ending. While the soap opera fan in us
>would love to see the story play out in a serial fashion,
>there is no escape for Martha. She is haunted. She is
>traumatized. And while she may go on with her life, she'll
>never escape the grasp the cult has on her and her psyche.
>She's fucked. Unless she fully accepts massive psychological
>treatment, she will continue to be a victim, being stalked by
>visions of her past.
>
>that's how i interpreted and accepted the ending.

i can dig that explanation of it a lot actually. right on

The man from the dock is the dude behind her. Whether he kills the family and takes Martha or just keeps tabs on her, she's trapped.

there is no evidence that the guy she saw on the dock was actually there, and there is no evidence that he's in the car.

i agree though, whether he's real or not, she is indeed trapped.

if they come after her (which i don't believe they'd risk), she's fucked. if they dont and she's left with the fear of them coming after her, she's fucked. either way, this girl is seriously damaged.

I did a little digging, because I suspected the director dressed the man in the car exactly like the man on the dock with reason. Sure enough, in the script, it indicates that the man in the car was the man on the dock.

Now yes, it could be a paranoid hallucination, I suppose. But the question at the film's resolution isn't "will she escape?" The question is, "can she live?" We get a definite "no" answer-- she's under the cult's control at the end, either literally or mentally.

either A, B or C can happen, lol.

to be clear i wanted one of the three to happen ON SCREEN, that's all. he kills her/them, they fight him off, or they extend the film 5-10 min to show that they def keepin' tabs on her, which obviously they were, so i guess i just wanted A or B to happen on screen

it doesn't make sense honestly. dgnosh def has the accurate interpretation of the ending and resolution of Ms. 4M