Formative Performances: Elizabeth Olsen in “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

[The following is a guest post from abovethetitle.]

I try to feed off Lady T’s lead when possible and since she went with one of this year’s unnominated gems, I will do the same. I mentioned in my “Black Swan” post that I usually get obsessed with one performance per year and this was my 2011 pick.

Let me preface this by saying that as a child of the ’80s, the Olsen twins were a fixture of my pre-pre-adolescence. I remember being in their fan club. I remember having Velcro sneakers with the “Full House” sisters on them. I remember the very first item I ever saved for with my very own allowance money was the talking Michelle doll. I think it was something like $30 but considering I was saving $1 at a time, my frame of reference might be completely off. But as we all know, the appeal of the Olsens to little girls of a certain demographic had nothing to do with acting ability. As I get older (and they did too obviously), I admired them for their business acumen. Their Wal-Mart line is said to sell over $1 billion in the US alone.

When I heard that their younger sister (known as Lizzie for those who watched the Olsen and Olsen detective agency VHS series – VHS!) was the darling of Sundance, I could not wait to see her film debut. There seemed something so anti-establishment about the younger sister of famous pre-teen Hollywood tycoons being the talented one. And talented she is. In fact, I just did her a great disservice by doing an entire intro paragraph on her sisters when I should be focusing on her but this is a blog entry meant to illustrate what her performance in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” meant to me. I was rooting for her so hard to come into her own and discover her own destiny. Her performance in “Martha” is touching and brave. With a face that’s a cross between, well, her sisters’ and Vera Farmiga and eyes that pierce through the screen, she made me feel so much for her character, a  woman lost after escaping from a cult that left her brainwashed and gave her difficulty assimilating back into normal life. She is at times both simultaneously strong and vulnerable, making Martha sympathetic despite being so flawed. That Elizabeth Olsen herself is known as somewhat of a Chekhov fanatic only adds to my belief she is one of the next well-spoken younger actresses who will continue to play interesting characters. Luckily for us, we have her very first one here: