The film follows Martha (Elizabeth Olsen; yes, sister to those Olsens), a 20-something who flees from a cult led by the charismatic Patrick (John Hawkes), located in the Catskills. Martha is taken in by her older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and Lucy’s husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) at their summer house in Connecticut. After Martha’s escape, her psyche continues to unravel, while flashbacks detail some of the experiences she had with the cult. 

Olsen is excellent in her first major role, projecting child-like petulance and naiveté without being grating. The movie rests upon her ability to express the thoughts and memories she refuses to vocalize to her sister, and she delivers. It’s impressive work, especially for a first-timer. Despite deciding to leave the cult, it nevertheless dominates her personality. She is offended and repelled by the opulence of the lake house, which contrasts sharply to the lifestyle of subsistence farming she experienced in the Catskills. This creates conflict with her sister and her husband, a posh British architect. The tenuous living arrangement is only further strained by Martha’s deepening paranoia that Patrick and his other followers are seeking to forcibly re-abduct her. While her erratic behaviour generates concern, her unwillingness to divulge her experiences prevent Sarah and Ted from realizing the depth of her psychological problems.

In the latter half of the film, scenes from the lake house and flashbacks alternate more rapidly. The cuts between the two locations and times are smooth, and any references that might establish a sense of continuity are deliberately removed. The editing and divergent storytelling do cause confusion, but they also create a palpable sense of paranoia, with neither Martha nor the audience sure of how much is, or was, imagined or real. The sparse score and the cinematography only enhance the tension; shots are frequently framed against open expanses, or with the object in focus placed to one side, seemingly suggesting the imminent arrival of something—anything—in the background. Arguably the film’s greatest achievement is the feeling of inevitability it builds, but still manages to undercut in a terrific ending.

Ultimately, Martha Marcy May Marlene suggests an interesting theory about its central character: that she may be better suited to be “Marcy May,” the name Patrick bestows upon her, than Martha. As Martha, she has a distant sister with a rich husband, and the prospect of life in a world in which she is not suited to operate. As Marcy May, she’s a leader and a teacher—as she angrily tells her sister—and perhaps, she’s saner.