Fresh
In quiet, intimate ways, it is one of the most startling, haunting films you'll see all year.
Christy Lemire, Associated Press
Martha Marcy May Marlene
You can get away, but you can never escape.
2011 · 1h 41m · R
Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Sean Durkin
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Martha Marcy May Marlene
Overview
After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, 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.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
90%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Durkin intersperses the present-day scenes with increasingly revelatory flashbacks from Martha's two years in the cult.
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Fresh
MMMM emphasizes the social and economic discrepancies between Martha's then and now, and alludes to Lucy's guilt about not being there for her younger sister in the past.
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Fresh
Once we've got over the frustration of this promising film's abrupt ending, we're left with the feeling that you can escape a cult but you can't escape yourself.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Fresh
A purposely disturbing portrait of a damaged psyche.
Tom Long, Detroit News
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