8: WW84 & Martha Marcy May Marlene
KATHLEEN NORRIS ON MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
I am grateful to have nieces and now grand-nieces who’ve had the kind of parenting that’s helped them become strong, self-confident, and compassionate people. But I also wonder about young women who lack that nurturing love and guidance and who fall victim to the destructive influence of cults. Sean Durkin’s haunting Martha Marcy May Marlene provides useful insight into this. It’s worth renting the DVD for the 13 minute short that inspired Durkin’s longer film. Mary Last Seen opens with a seemingly ordinary couple traveling by car. Disquiet sets in when the young man seizes an opportunity to steal the woman’s cell phone and discard it. When she can’t find it she complains that she can’t buy another one, as he’s used up all her money. Our unease turns to fear when we realize that the man is recruiting for a cult, and once he delivers her there he’ll hit the road again to look for more victims.
The longer film is anchored by the brilliant acting of John Hawkes as the cult leader and Elizabeth Olsen as his latest victim. Hawke’s "Patrick" is all the more menacing because he is soft-spoken and seems gentle. His re-naming “Martha” as “Marcy May” is quietly and quickly done; his saying, ”I know people have abandoned you your whole life” might be an act of caring. But he’s determined to take control of this addled young woman, and needs her to accept his rules: women do the household chores while men work on the farm, and the women eat only after the men have finished eating.
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