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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Play trailer Poster for Martha Marcy May Marlene R Released Oct 21, 2011 1h 41m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
90% Tomatometer 210 Reviews 71% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
After several years of living with a cult, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy), but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader (John Hawkes).
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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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Critics Consensus

Led by a mesmerizing debut performance from Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a distinctive, haunting psychological drama.

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Critics Reviews

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Christy Lemire Associated Press In quiet, intimate ways, it is one of the most startling, haunting films you'll see all year. Mar 18, 2014 Full Review Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor Durkin intersperses the present-day scenes with increasingly revelatory flashbacks from Martha's two years in the cult. Rated: B Mar 18, 2014 Full Review Violet Lucca Film Comment Magazine With a diegesis mapped along the mental contours of its protagonist, Martha Marcy May Marlene harkens back to Pasolini's notion of the cinema of poetry--and achieves it beautifully. Jun 28, 2013 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia A psychological drama that builds its labyrinth with a fairly organic performance by Elizabeth Olsen, but its narrative often remains in an overly calculated zone that, in its register of circularity, never takes risks. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 6/10 Jun 10, 2024 Full Review Joe Lipsett Anatomy of a Scream Podcast Network Elizabeth Olsen stuns in her feature debut in a film that perfectly embodies PTSD. While the murder sequence doesn't fully work, the way Durkin shifts between timelines and the "before they were famous" cast makes this a must-see Rated: 4.5/5 Jan 11, 2024 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins The acting is exceptional all around, as is the minimalist score. Rated: 6/10 Nov 30, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Spike D Deprogramming ain't no easy thing. Neither is making a satisfying ending, I guess. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/03/25 Full Review Lynn A I was upset by the cat being killed. Also by the man who was killed after promising he wouldn’t call the police. Olsen is a good actor. The ending was awful for me. They were being followed on their way to a psychiatric institute; then the movie ended. From my perspective, I feel my emotions were toyed with; I was lured into caring, twisted into anxiety, with no resolution. It’s as though the movie ended at its climax, its peak of tension, with my hoping she, Marcy May, could get help. Too many plot strings unraveled, leaving me hanging. Gratuitous violence and sex aren’t appealing to me. If there had been some kind of ending, then I could have been far more satisfied. As it was, watching this movie wasn’t worth the emotional effort I expended, hoping she could survive, and perhaps one day, thrive. Also, her sister could have realized very soon after picking her up, Martha needed counseling, “debriefing.” But I thought Martha’s sister did try very hard to help her. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/03/25 Full Review Cristian s Buena película de drama sobre el tema de traumas, soledad y como un culto se aprovecha de ello. Lamentablemente es de esas a ritmo lento que no es para todo el mundo, además de que el final me resulto decepcionante. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 06/02/25 Full Review Faiz D Not everyone's cup of tea! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/13/25 Full Review Conner D Garbage. Anyone who gives this a high rating is sniffing their own farts . Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/04/25 Full Review Audience Member the cult Martha belongs to literally destroys her psychosis and the film really plays on the psychological damage of it all Elizabeth Olsen gives an outstanding performance as a damaged, young woman who tries to escape her past but just can't break free from the scars for me this movie took a long while to get interesting and again there's no music plus the fact that this is non-linear storytelling; half the plot is told in flashbacks to get an idea of what happened to her I love Sara Paulson, too as the caring, affectionate sister who tries to repair her the acting is really good here another amazing character piece that puts Martha in a harsh position of not knowing what to do and where to go when all is lost and lastly, no real ending it just stops Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/25 Full Review Read all reviews
Martha Marcy May Marlene

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Movie Info

Synopsis After several years of living with a cult, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy), but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader (John Hawkes).
Director
Sean Durkin
Producer
Josh Mond, Antonio Campos, Chris Maybach, Patrick Cunningham
Screenwriter
Sean Durkin
Distributor
Fox Searchlight
Production Co
Fox Searchlight
Rating
R (Disturbing Violent Content|Disturbing Sexual Content|Language|Nudity)
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 21, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$3.0M
Runtime
1h 41m
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