It’s the combined stresses of living a lie while also uncovering the disturbing details surrounding the real Martha’s demise that drags Gulia down into the depths of madness, turning her into an increasingly unreliable narrator and making for a gripping ordeal as her genuinely distressing dreams become indistinct from her grief-stricken reality. Knowing that Martha has always been the favourite child, Giulia neglects to clear up the confusion and instead pretends to be Martha while investigating the suspicious circumstances around her sister’s death. I'll definitely check out his work in the future, but this film isn't quite there yet.After she discovers the body of her identical twin Martha drowned in a lake near her family home, Giulia inadvertently assumes her sister’s identity when her grieving mother mistakes her for the wrong sibling.
To be clear: I don't object to open endings or films that leave a lot of information out to allow viewer interpretation, but in this case I felt it was done as a cover up for lack of decision on Durkin's part - a flawed script that doesn't really feel complete. The same goes for the relationship between Martha, her sister and her brother in law, and most of all the ending, which suggests some very interesting subjects which the rest of the movie doesn't really explore. The cult, for example, is fascinating, seductive and nightmarish, and John Hawkes delivers outstandingly, but on closer inspection it looks like a perfectly generic hippie cult of the classic Manson prototype, and we get no hints of what their philosophy actually is, or about the personalities of any of the members. It's probably because there's so much potential and so much to explore, and so little of it is actually brought to fruition, that I left the film with a bitter taste of a missed opportunity. It's a film that looks and sounds great, but unfortunately it doesn't mesh into a satisfying experience. It boasts two young talents who are showing tons of potential - director Sean Durkin and lead actress Elizabeth Olsen Olsen's performance is subtle and effective, and Durkin's directorial work creates a strong sense of atmosphere, which is aided by the superb cinematography of Jody Lee Lipes (who also had very little prior experience in feature length films). I'm tempted to give Martha Marcy May Marlene a higher rating than it deserves for what it could have been, not for what it is.
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