Click here for the review of Martha Marcy May Marlene

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Ouch, I bet that hurts

I've heard nothing but great things about this one. I think I'll try to check it out this weekend.

This doesn't open anywhere near me this week, but I've got tickets to a free screening next Thursday. Definitely one of my more anticipated films in these final months of 2011.

Definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Just saw this. I'm rattled.

You got something against Maggie Gyllenhaal?

I'd say Olsen resembles a cross between Gyllenhaal and Vera Farminga. Chiefly, though, she looks a lot like her sisters.

While I liked the film is effective at making the viewer feel Martha's precarious psychological state, especially with its use of interweaving timelines, overall I think this film is being overrated. I find myself agreeing with critics like AO Scott who have used words like "opaque" to describe this film. I'm fine with ambiguity, but I feel that this film doesn't truly allow the viewer to fully understand what compelled Martha to escape from the commune. It conveys her seduction into the cult better than her alienation. Also, the ending is truly frustrating, and this is coming from a guy who liked the open-ended endings of "No Country for Old Men" and "A Serious Man." There is no doubt that a few more scenes were needed to complete the protagonist's arc, if not the story.

I don't particularly like her as an actress and having seen her on the Graham Norton show, I don't think much of her as a person either. Looks shouldn't be an issue but I wouldn't rate her highly there either.

I'd say Olsen looks EXACTLY like her sisters in fact I was convinced for a moment that she was one of them (their names had escaped me).

Saw this today. It's certainly going to find a high spot on my end-of-the-year Top 10, maybe even at the top. I have a feeling it'll stick with me for quite a long time.

To illustrate why this movie is lacking, everyone who likes this movie should watch "Paris, Texas.".

I've seen both and loved both. It's an interesting comparison, but other than some fairly tenuous plot similarities, the two films differ so drastically both in tone and overall intent that I don't buy that one should be used as a measuring stick against the other.

People should just watch Paris, Texas anyway. Honestly, I see no connection between the two movies. Like, at all. One's a quiet, contemplative drama and the other's essentially a horror film.

I'll admit that they are different in tone, but in both films are character studies of people who have disappeared for long periods of time to escape their problems and then come back to the families they left behind, which happen to be siblings in both cases. In "Paris, Texas," we never understand what Travis was doing during his disappearance. However, the reason I think "Paris, Texas" creates a more successful character study out of a similar story to "Martha Marcy May Marlene" is that Travis, while still remaining an enigma, readjusts to life amongst people he used to know. Though Travis' self-imposed exile has changed him inexorably, there is still a reconciliation of his present and past personas that occurs as he deals with the problems he left behind. There are depths to the character that we may never fully understand, but I had a better grasp on him than Martha/Marcy May. I like the film, but I left the movie feeling that Martha is a construct. I'm not sure if it's what the filmmakers intended, but I was empathizing with Martha's brother-in-law when he rebuked her at the dinner table.