her sister. The second narrative slowly The two communes in Martha’s unfolds and exposes the trauma, as life are socially separated, but both Martha found herself seduced into restrict her. From the crippling and the ways of a cult living out in the demanding prospects of the real rural and barren countryside. These world, where expectations are built two narratives intertwine throughout and lives structured, to the uncomplex the film, providing something of a and passive life where she’s forced contrast between the two times of to give up her choice and her body Martha’s life. Her indoctrination into in return for that simplicity. Martha the cult isn’t through fear or panic, Marcy May Marlene transitions but through the soft tenderness they between these two worlds, just as its give her. The girls are all amicable, central character does. Her tumbling all friendly and all kind, while the mental state is worsened by her boys are all attentive and flattering, terror of the cult and the uncertainty their gaze carrying of the ‘real world’. not quite lust but There’s something It’s more a gradually something more of a depressing than cordiality. that unfolding document realization What an Martha may have than a developing immediate contrast been broken all story. this initiation proves along, and been to be with her family pushed into two life. When Martha different, ill-fitting picks up the phone to her sister, there’s worlds that have only exacerbated her no joy in either’s voice. There’s some mental state. concern, but not the warmth of family. The contrast of these two Martha’s hesitant, almost hanging up ‘families’ is the key to understanding the phone before finally relenting, as the structure of Martha Marcy though caught between two different May Marlene. It’s not a film about evils. There’s a coldness between traditional arcs or developments. the two sisters, with an unspoken The essence of a three act structure bitterness drawn underneath the pair. is there, but above it is some very It’s not surprising this girl succumbed untraditional storytelling. It’s more a to the slightest breath of community, gradually unfolding document than a the foundation under her family life developing story. We’re given scraps is acidic. of information about Martha and the
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