May December (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.

My Take – While director Todd Haynes is known for his excellent works like I’m Not There (2007), Carol (2015), and Dark Waters (2019), his latest is his most uneasy offering yet.

Drawing inspiration from the infamous real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau, an American schoolteacher who, in 1997, groomed, seduced, and had sex with her 12-year-old student, and ended up being convicted on two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child, here, writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik set a slow-moving character study that swings between irreverent and a self-serious soap-opera.

Depending on the viewer, it can be either tedious or interesting. For me, it’s was somewhere in between. Both fascinating and incredibly uncomfortable.

Indeed, director Haynes has undertaken a much stranger beast of a script that’s as multi-layered and unpredictable as the two actors, Natalie Portman and frequent collaborator Julianne Moore, who set the stage for a showdown, which unfortunately never comes.

But it’s really director Haynes’ confidence in taking these broad tonal swings that enable the film with a certain sense of audience awareness. And while that doesn’t sound like a film that’s enjoyable to watch, the performances, and the whole set-up makes it worth watching at least once.

Set in 2015, the story follows Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), a popular actress known for her feature and TV works, who arrives in Savannah, Georgia, to research her upcoming role in an independent film in which she portrays Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore). Twenty years ago, Gracie, a 36-year-old married woman with children who worked in a pet shop, went to prison for having an affair with a 13-year-old boy Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) and bearing his child.

Since then, the two have been happily married with a total of three children as Joe works as an X-ray technician and Gracie runs a small home-bakery business. And though the family is initially welcoming of her and keen to help, but as Elizabeth peers further and further into the cracks, the home truths of Gracie and Joe’s relationship begin coming to a tense culmination.

What starts off as a gossip-ridden drama, slowly unfurls into a tragic tale of abuse and stunted growth. The more she finds out, the more involved Elizabeth becomes and the more immersed we all become in this quite compelling story of a taboo that rather broke a mold or two and is now surrounded by an atmosphere of hypocrisy and faux-friendships. Her presence not only disrupts the couple’s present life but also forces them to confront their controversial past.

The 117 minute run time explores themes that are often left untouched, unearthing raw emotions and challenging societal norms. The discomfort it induces is intentional, pushing the audience to question their own perceptions and biases.

It’s the moral grey areas that makes the film interesting, offering a narrow view of the past and an obscured view of the present. Mostly from the point of view of a man, who is in the middle of all tension and competitiveness between the two women, and finds himself devoid of much purpose as he heads towards his forties.

We even see Gracie’s insidious manipulations creep up past the sugary frosting. She doesn’t treat her children right, and later behind closed doors, Gracie will push Joe to do her bidding by exploding into tears at the least disagreement. Finds ways to make herself the victim of almost every interaction, ensuring that Joe’s attention is constantly refocused on consoling her. Not on processing his trauma.

Unfortunately, in the end struggles to sit right, and not because of the subject at hand. There are a lot of balls in the air in the film that could have made interesting plot points. Exploring the relationship between Joe and Gracie, or Gracie and the children from her first marriage, or properly developing the relationship between Elizabeth and, well, anyone, could have made for a very interesting film. But the film tries to explore all of these intricate relationships in under two hours, leaving a lot of possibly great stories on the table.

Sure, it’s possibly purposeful, but a lack of conclusion left me unsatisfied at the end of an otherwise deliciously disquieting film. Adding more hurt is the dramatic music that seemed more fitting for a campy murder mystery from decades ago filled the film with a tackiness I just couldn’t ignore. This style of score was used repeatedly throughout and never once did it feel fitting.

Performances wise, Julianne Moore is exceptional, bringing a level of depth and complexity to her character that is truly impressive. Her on-screen chemistry with Natalie Portman is palpable, adding another layer of intricacy to their shared scenes. Natalie Portman‘s portrayal of Elizabeth is equally nuanced, capturing the intricacies of her character remarkably well.

However, the biggest surprise of the film comes in the form of Charles Melton who effortlessly bares the film’s entire emotional weight on his shoulders. In supporting roles, Cory Michael Smith, Elizabeth Yu, Gabriel Chung, D. W. Moffett, Piper Curda and Lawrence Arancio are good. On the whole, ‘May December’ is a deeply uncomfortable blended drama propelled by three excellent performances.