MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE  directed by Sean Durkin (USA, 2011)

It is common to brand someone  as insane when their behaviour runs counter to the conventional norms in society.

But what if those norms are based on fucked up values?

Sean Durkin’s assured debut movie is a powerful psychological drama that shows the vulnerability of the ‘haves’ in society and raises disturbing questions about how we  classify  mentally illness.

In the latest Adbusters tactical briefing that I received by e-mail today I was informed that: “millions of people around the world are waking up to the fact that their future does not compute… that their lives will be a never-ending series of ecological, financial, political and personal crises… and that if we don’t rise up and start fighting for a different kind of future, we won’t have a future”.  

There’s no intrinsic political message in this movie but it occurred to me that the bleak conditions of the modern world that Adbusters so accurately identify are a fertile ground in which cults and fake ideologies thrive.

In desperate times people look for desperate solutions and are drawn to those who offer a sense of purpose and belonging.

Central to the story of MMMM is a disturbed (and possibly crazy) woman from one such cult based on a remote farm in the Catskills. This group is led by the charismatic Patrick (John Hawkes) whose chiselled features and intense gaze make you think of Charles Manson.

Patrick’s existentialist doctrines are designed to remove  inhibitions  –  “fear brings you to now and makes you truly present”  he tells Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), who he nicknames Macy May. (The third of the names in the clunky title is one all the other women in the cult use when answering the phone).

Aside from the daily chores, the role of the women in the group is that of  breeders.  There are baby boys but no girls, we can only speculate what happens when someone gives birth to the ‘wrong’ gender.

Sex and violence underpins the initiation tasks and these fascinate but ultimately repel Martha. She escapes and finds uneasy sanctuary at an idyllic summer lakeside home in Connecticut where her sister Lucy and brother-in-law Ted (Hugh Lancy) are on a two-week vacation.

Troubled sisters - Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) and Lucy (Sarah Paulson)

This change of location is no bed of roses as Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and Martha obviously have a troubled history. Martha, we imagine was pretty screwed up when she joined the cult and the experience has left her even more distanced from ‘normal’ social niceties of politeness, diplomacy and respect for privacy. Ultimately the patience of her ‘rescuers’ is stretched to breaking point.

You can fully understand the couple’s irritation but one of the strengths of the movie is that is doesn’t take sides. Despite being socially inept and emotionally disturbed  you begin to understand how Martha was drawn to the cult through a rejection of  the selfishness and hypocrisy that drives conventional society.  At one point Martha accuses her smug brother-in-law Ted  of measuring success purely in terms of money and possessions and she is not wrong.

Great endings don’t always make great movies but they do make them more memorable. I would not be surprised if Durkin started this story with his bold and very effective conclusion fixed in his mind. The movie builds slowly towards what looks certain to be a grim finale but ends just as your worst fears are about to be realised. It leaves a nasty taste which I think was the director’s intention all along.