Martha Marcy May Marlene
Starring Elizabeth
Olsen, John Hawkes By Steve Norton
Rated R for thematic
content, language and brief nudity Rating:
****1/2 (out of 5)
In Theaters Friday, October 23rd, 2011
In Theaters Friday, October 23rd, 2011
As I continue
to debrief my experience at TIFF, I keep coming back to one specific film.
I have been able to link it with other films and deconstruct it from that
perspective but, to be honest, that wouldn't do this particular film justice.
My experience of this film was one of emotional horror. It left me
feeling disturbed to my very core and was one of those rare occasions when I
simply did not know how to deal with what I had just seen.
It’s
excellent.
Martha Marcy opens as a young girl named Martha
(Elizabeth Olsen, in one of the best performances I have ever seen) escapes from
a cult in the Catskill Mountains.
Searching for safety, she reaches out to her sister and
brother-in-law—the only family that she has left—to take her in. Upon Martha’s arrival, her sister
slowly begins to notice distinct differences in her sister’s behaviour, ranging
from her comments about being a ‘teacher and a leader’ to skinny-dipping publicly
in broad daylight. From there, the
film unfolds in a skewed timeline that ebbs and flows between reality and
flashback (or is it a dream?). The
film masterfully contrasts Martha’s seemingly bizarre behaviour with her family
while, at the same time, slowly revealing to us the horrors that took place in
the commune under the influence of their charismatic leader, Patrick (John
Hawkes).
Since
viewing this film, I have not been able to escape the vision of the depth of
damage incurred by sin at the Fall. The best illustration of this comes through the journey
Martha takes in her relationship with Patrick. For instance, when Martha first meets Patrick, he carries
himself with incredible charm. In a conversation that is eerily reminiscent of
the Serpent’s exchange with Eve in Genesis 3, Patrick promises much to his
young inductee and welcomes her to the commune with humility and openness,
explaining that ‘it’s as much yours as it is mine’. The interesting thing is that Patrick’s teachings even
appear to make sense. He seamlessly
blends truth and lies together in the pseudo-spiritual advice he offers to his
new recruit, inviting her to ‘let her guard down [because they] want to help…”
and teaching her that, despite their poverty, they are ‘in need of nothing’. In Patrick, Martha finds an escape from
her life and potential hope for a future.
He even refuses to call her by her given name, stating she ‘looks like a
Marcy May’ (a metaphor used by the film to show the death of her old self).
Nevertheless,
similar to the Genesis account of the Fall, Martha’s (or is it Marcy May?)
openness to Patrick’s teaching causes her to suffer her own fall from
grace. As a result, she gradually
loses her sense of self, becoming the very ‘picture on the wall’ about which
Patrick sings. Martha Marcy May Marlene is a haunting
vision of the devastation that occurs when one allows themselves to be seduced
by skewered visions of love and wholeness. Martha’s openness to life with Patrick may have begun as a
desire for a fresh start but it ends up reshaping her life and worldview in a
way that leaves her barely recognizable to her family. (Even the film’s poster—a giant ‘M’
with Olsen’s picture behind it—suggests that Martha has found herself
imprisoned by her experience. You
can see the ad here.) In other
words, like Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden, Martha’s desire for
something better than what she had leads her into world of brokenness and
disarray far worse than she could have imagined.
Furthermore,
this film really also speaks to the depth of one’s story. This idea is best brought forward
through Martha’s relationship with her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and
brother-in-law Ted (Hugh Dancy).
Having been absent from their lives for two years, Martha’s reappearance
causes a great deal of tension within the family unit. To her sister, she’s
still a child; to her workaholic brother-in-law, she’s an annoyance. In fact, perhaps the most frustrating
thing about this film is the manner in which her family deals with the ‘new’
Martha. Ted exists in his own
world, focusing primarily on himself.
His intent is to enjoy the time (and money) that he’s earned and
consistently complains about Martha’s imposition on his vacation that ‘he only
gets two weeks a year’ to utilize.
On the other hand, while Lucy’s engagement with her sister is far more
sensitive, it still falls short of truly being able to help. Rather than inquire of and listen patiently
to her sister’s story, Lucy makes assumptions about Martha’s relationship with
Patrick and writes off the experience as having to do with ‘some boyfriend up
in the Catskills’. As a result,
both she and Patrick appear consumed with curbing her behaviour so that she can
function socially. In truth,
however, Martha’s story has been damaged so deeply that merely attempting to
acclimatize her actions is only a Band-Aid solution at best. What does a moment
like this mean to us as Christians?
Interestingly, it is also here that the nature of the Gospel is at it’s
most relevant. As Christ speaks
grace and truth into the hearts of the broken, he offers restoration at the
very deepest parts of our souls. However,
the attitude exhibited by Martha’s family actually prevents her from
experiencing genuine, God-filled healing by focusing on her behaviour instead
of connecting her heart with the Spirit of Christ. In short, Martha doesn’t need to be ‘fixed’. She needs to experience healing—and
that can only begin once you get to the very heart of her story and meet her
there with grace.
The
truth about Martha Marcy May Marlene
is that it genuinely reflects the effects of our own fallenness. Similar to the events of Genesis 3,
Martha’s journey illustrates the reality of the shattering of our own
wholeness. Furthermore, the brokenness of her
story pleads for someone to offer her freedom and restoration.
Which
is also the very point where the Gospel needs to intersect.
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