BEFORE: Crap, direct linking doesn't seem to be possible tonight, for the first time in ages - but Shirley Jones from "Elmer Gantry" was also in "Grandma's Boy" with Shirley Knight, who was also in "Our Idiot Brother" with Hugh Dancy, so there's that.
THE PLOT: Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
AFTER: This film is another of those where the scenes are all out of order - in this case, they toggle between the past, which is "Marcy May's" life in the cult, and her life afterwards, when she returns to being Martha and crashes at her sister's vacation house. I understand why this is done, because slowly revealing the details of her experience creates suspense, but my problem with it, as you might expect, is that if the scenes all played out in linear fashion, the first half with the cult would be very painful to watch, and the second half, the recovery, would be as boring as dirt.
Toggling back and forth between the two timelines also creates some connections between them, like seeing her sexual experiences in the cult might explain why she felt it was OK to crawl into bed with her sister and brother-in-law. Then again, you could probably put any two sets of scenes together and make some connections between them. I'm open to the possibility that Martha is slowly remembering her time in the cult, and we're seeing it as she's becoming aware of it, but this doesn't really hold water. Even though she can't talk about it, she must be aware that something bad happened, or she never would have tried to escape in the first place.
As others have pointed out, there is no real dogma in the cult, we're not sure what they stand for (or against) except for group sex and gardening. So it's possible that Martha was just on a freaky farm commune - or are there atheist cults? The leader, while dynamic, never offers up anything close to religion or devil-worship, he just enforces control over his followers.
The other problem is that the movie doesn't really end, it just sort of stops. Again, one can say that this heightens suspense, because we don't find out if Martha gets completely free, or if she gets pulled back into the cult when they track her down, or because she can't navigate society without it. One can also say that being ambiguous in this sense is also a narrative cop-out of the highest order.
It's tough to talk about, but I was raised in a cult of sorts. I was born into it, so I didn't know any other way to live until I was about 17. The cult functioned according to a set of arcane rules, and its members were expected to give over portions of their salary to the cult, which used the money to fund its vast network of secret property and staff.
The cult used strange tactics to try and control my behavior - first they told me that there was a special "enforcer" who lived far away, but could see my actions and judge them, and then he would come and break into my house once a year and supply me and the other cult members with everything we wanted or needed, but if he disapproved of my actions, I would not be rewarded at all. Eventually I realized that this enforcer did not even exist, and this was just a scare tactic of the cult.
Then they tried to tell me that the leader of the cult lived up in the sky, and could also see my actions and judge them, so this was another blatant attempt to control my behavior, according to the cult's rules. This time they raised the stakes: if I lived according to the rules, then when I died I wouldn't really die, but instead I'd be whisked away to a magic land where everyone I ever knew who died now lived, and there was no sickness or disease or poverty, and everyone was also happy. But if I didn't live according to the cult rules, then I'd be sent to another magic land where I would be burned and tortured for all eternity.
I was made to participate in weekly rituals, where everyone stood and knelt at the same time, and repeated the same phrases, over and over. Over time I could feel my mind slipping, the habitual nature of the process resulted in a mild form of brainwashing, and any time I raised questions about what the cult believed or how it worked, I was told it was a "mystery". This seemed to satisfy most members of the cult, but I struggled to retain some independent thought.
Part of the ritual involved eating food and drink which the cult members believed could be turned into the flesh and blood of their leader, just by someone waving his hands over them and reciting some magic words. Other religious groups perform similar services, but for them this process is largely symbolic - but in this sect, its members actually believe that the bread and wine actually turns into the actual flesh of their lord, who died years ago but somehow came back to life. So, zombie flesh.
I was fairly sure that cannibalism was wrong in most instances, but apparently there is an exception made for zombie flesh of magic men. (The cult members also believed their dead leader had supernatural powers, like healing people and multiplying food...) This is something I could not reconcile - if you believe the process creates real zombie flesh, then why in the world would you want to eat that?
It gets worse - the cult tells its members who they can marry, and then forces people to raise their children within the cult as well. Birth control is frowned upon, and any woman who gets pregnant is expected to carry the child to full term and also raise it within the cult. Why? More cult members, that's why. People who don't follow these rules are asked to leave the cult, so when I got divorced years ago, which is also against the rules, I took the opportunity to get myself free.
Seriously, if you thought that down the street from you people were gathering together to chant ritually and eat the zombified flesh of their dead lord, you'd call the cops, right?
Also starring Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes (last seen in "Lincoln"), Sarah Paulson (last seen in "New Year's Eve"), Brady Corbett.
RATING: 2 out of 10 phone calls
No comments:
Post a Comment