Review of Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) by Tom D — 19 May 2012

Elizabeth Olsen's performance conveyed the confusion and instability of someone whose sense of identity has gradually eroded and left her not knowing where she belongs in the world. The simple style of filming conveys this uncertainty, making the open woods surrounding a suburban home seem like a potential threat, and the interspersed flashbacks of her past with a cult conveyed a desperate feeling of belonging gradually turning into hopelessness and degradation under its manipulation.

The everyday rejections and invalidations which pushed several characters into a lifestyle so far out of the ordinary is touched on, most strongly through the lack of sympathy the titular character receives as she drifts through the social norms which she has grown unfamiliar with.