The latest film by Todd Haynes uses a biting wit to observe tabloid culture.
Two decades after 36-year-old Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) was caught sexually assaulting 14-year-old Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), the pair have married and started a family. In preparation for a film about this scandal, they are visited by actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) who is set to play Gracie in the film.
The film is loosely based on a similar scandal where 34-year-old teacher Mary Kay Letourneau had an affair with her sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau, whom she later married and started a family with.
One of May December’s defining traits are its elusive subtleties. Its characters and setting appear sugar-coated, as if everyone in Gracie and Joe’s life is avoiding the sinister nature of their relationship. Moore and Portman’s acting expertise is on overdrive during their interactions. Every scene with the two of them fixed on dissecting one another makes your skin crawl with awkwardness.
And yet, beyond the facade of “true love” that Gracie consistently enforces on Joe and the life they have built, it’s obvious to the audience that what she has done is wrong. Her melodramatic antics and manipulation leave the audience helpless to watch Joe break down and question his relationship with her.
May December is a vicious unravelling of their motivations. In turn, this prompts us to reflect on what our own approach to this story would be.
Portman’s performance as Elizabeth is icy and impenetrable. Her motivations are never made clear, but there is an implied line that she crosses from a place of righteousness to morbid fascination and indulgence.
While Moore and Portman’s performances are worthy of their own reviews, Charles Melton is the film’s quiet showstopper. Throughout the film, there is a grandiose campiness at the forefront of every twist and turn. Dramatic piano motifs will appear in unexpected moments to sensationalize the story and distract from the hidden tragedy of Melton’s character.
There is a deliberate impression that the film is trying to direct its attention towards Gracie and Elizabeth, with the story trying to analyze Gracie as the primary character in the movie. This leads to the quiet moments spent with Joe like releasing newly hatched butterflies to feel like the few fleeting moments of freedom from this nightmare.
The cautionary aspect behind this serves as a building block to the film’s observation of twisted narratives. Elizabeth continuously studies Gracie, directing her entire attention and fascination towards the depraved acts she committed. With a relatively understated but nonetheless refined appearance, Portman brings Elizabeth’s character to life with nothing but her energy and presence. It’s safe to say this performance is a career-best for Portman; she’s an actor at the top of her game portraying a character of the same expertise.
Melton’s performance is significantly less dramatic and eye-catching than Moore’s or Portman’s, but this is precisely where Melton’s power lies. It’s gut-wrenching to watch him process trauma while his innocence and freedom are stripped all over again.
Ultimately, this is what May December knocks out of the park. The constant push and pull between who tells the story is seemingly a struggle between everyone but the person most impacted by it. This conclusion leaves audiences with material for reflection and an incentive to return to this film again, a hallmark of an effective commentary film.
