Seamlessly weaving his story with flashbacks and the present, director Sean Durkin presents a low-key thriller from the perspective of a young, unstable woman (think Black Swan). The opening scene transports us to a seemingly bucolic setting, a slightly rundown farmhouse, men hammering and women mending, a couple of kids, in a remote area which is tucked into the hills of the Catskills. We meet Martha who meets Patrick who quickly anoints her Marcy May, and by doing so, rebirths her into a new life in the cult commune. His eyes tell it all; they’re penetrating, his look sinister yet seductive , his voice sincere (think Charles Manson). This is a psychological thriller and within moments, apprehension and anxiety begin to mount.
From there, the story unfolds with Marcy May running away from the cult and going to live with her estranged sister. They are awkward with one another; Guilt weighing on Lucy, frustration consuming Ted (Lucy’s husband) and increasing paranoia in Martha. Flashbacks fill in the blanks and introduce the viewers to the life Marcy May led under the strange manipulative influence of Patrick.
The present deals with Martha who is tortured by her twisted desire to go back to the commune and her revulsion of what went on there. Her mind wanders back and forth between the past and the present, and she slips in and out of reality. Martha resists telling her clueless sister where she was and with who, but wouldn’t you think that after the third totally inappropriate episode with Martha, Lucy would persist in discovering the what and where of Martha’s last two years? Instead we hear “What’s wrong with you”? Plenty!
By the time the movie ended, I was as paranoid as Marcy May; she got under my skin and I couldn’t shake her off. The baffling and somewhat infuriating ending only added to my distress.
Spoiler Alert: “All the children are boys”. “He only has boys”. Who’s buried in the backyard? We see two or three white crosses in the backyard in the first scene.
Elizabeth Olsen(sister of the twins) makes her debut and leaves no doubt that she is on her way to a career in film. John Hawkes is compelling, scary and yes sexy. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy co-star in this Sundance favorite.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
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The Sessions formerly known as The Surrogate
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Deadwood, Helen Hunt, Hollywood, iron lung, John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Moon BloodGood, polio, Rhea Perlman, sex surrogate, William H. Macy on October 17, 2012| 2 Comments »
Once again I find myself in the odd position of NOT loving a movie that has many admirers. Two nights ago we saw The Sessions featuring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy and cameo appearance by Rhea Perlman. It is the poignant story (true) of a young man afflicted with polio since childhood. He spends most of his life in an iron lung with respites of a few hours on a gurney with a portable respirator. He can only move his head although he is not totally paralyzed, he cannot move any other part of his body because polio affects all his muscles. Although his life is limited, his mind is not. Mark (John Hawkes) is a college graduate, a devout Catholic and a virgin. He knows the odds of his life span and has decided he should experience sex before he dies. Oddly enough he chooses the parish priest (William H. Macy) as his confidante and looks to him for guidance. If that in itself isn’t a bit of a stretch (hey I’m Catholic, I know!), even with long wavy (à la California) hair and suntan, not for a minute did Macy appear to be a priest to me. Sorry 😦
John Hawkes and Helen Hunt give outstanding performances; Hopefully, the movie isn’t too small to eliminate Hawkes from an Oscar nomination. He can only use facial expressions and his voice to convey every emotion and yet he is as compelling in this role as he was in Martha Marcy May Marlene , as the sinister cult leader and the sensitive, complex merchant in Deadwood. My friend, Nancy, summed up the excellence of Hunt’s performance by noting just how amazingly comfortable and at ease Helen is with her own body. She was nakedly natural and naturally naked, skillfully playing the complex role of sex surrogate, wife, therapist and mother.
English: John Hawkes in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The screenplay is based on the autobiographical writings of Mark O’Brian. And this is where and why I think the movie didn’t ring entirely true for me. I believe the story was probably significantly enhanced by Hollywood, or it wouldn’t have gotten made. I suspect most of the facts are accurate however it is through the performances of highly-skilled, beautiful actors and deliberate casting that the facts have been interpreted. I know I sound like a pessimist but quite frankly, I seriously doubt that Mark’s life was populated with aides and therapists the likes of Helen Hunt, Moon BloodGood and Annika Marks. Additionally I feel that the odds are not likely to be in his favor that all three beautiful women fell in love with him. If in fact, the real Mark O’Brian was that compelling then unfortunately the script did not allow us to glimpse that magnetic personality.
Mark was a poet, an artist in his mind, trapped in a body that allowed him to express himself only through his words. He suffered from grandiose romantic misapprehensions, reflected in his inappropriate but possibly also naive behavior. First he proposes marriage to his home health aide – what was he thinking?? Later on predictably he falls for his sex therapist.
Fortunately the story has a happy but ultimately sad ending. I may be a spoiler but I’m stopping here.
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