Olsen straddles the thin line between coherence & madness in a way that's almost endearing and frightening-but ultimately just tragic while side-stepping the mines of caricature and melodrama. It's a marvelous, virtuoso performance, haunting and understated, natural yet very calculated. (Durkin won best director at Sundance last January for this, his first feature.) Youngest Olsen sister, Elizabeth plays Martha, (who's ripe to play an early '20's version of Vera Farmiga, or Maggie Gyllenhaal's little sis'-you're welcome Hollywood!).

Sean Durkin wrote and directed the film with a meditative tone and in a spartan, concise manner that thankfully doesn't suffer from the time-shifting storyline thanks to mostly seamless editing. In someways this year's 'Winter's Bone', (sharing John Hawks) but with its character study involving sanity slowly, sadly slipping away. It's not quite like any American indie films of recent memory. Or Hot Hippie Cult Love Gone (Very) Bad The schizophrenic, abstract story unfolds almost languidly at a very deliberate pace evoking Bergman with its Euro overtones, serene cinematography and bucolic backgrounds.

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