May December | Review

MOVIE INFORMATION

Director: Todd Haynes

Screenplay By: Samy Burch

Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton

Runtime: 117 minutes

---

With Bradley Cooper's sophomore follow-up to "A Star Is Born," "Maestro," releasing this week, Netflix is capping off a year that re-established them as one of the most significant forces in the industry. As we look back on 2023, this becomes more than evident with the streamer making numerous big acquisitions out of the film festivals and reigning in top talent from across the industry with films like David Fincher's "The Killer," Wes Anderson's series of shorts to include "The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar," and of course Todd Hayne's "May December." 

Acquired out of Cannes for 11 million dollars, the film follows movie actress Elizabeth, portrayed by Natalie Portman, as she does "prep" for her upcoming role in a new movie about a 7th-grade teacher who had an affair with a student. Twenty years after the initial story took the country by storm, the former teacher Gracie, Julianne Moore, and her husband, Joe, Charles Melton, live with their family in Savannah, Georgia. The story picks up as Elizabeth comes to town to begin her work for the role, and the audience follows her along as she digs into who Gracie and Joe are and their motivations and ideas.

First, the film's most glaring and most discussed aspect was easily the tone. Recently categorized as a comedy by the Golden Globes during their 2024 nominations announcement, viewers were surprised to see Haynes and co. take such an odd, dry, and humorous approach to topics as serious as rape and grooming, and it is not shy about doing so. Within the first five minutes, Julianne Moore's Gracie quips about a cookout, saying, "I don't think we have enough hot dogs," as she opens the refrigerator door. As she does so, Haynes zooms to a closeup with the fridge light shining on Moore's face, all while an intentionally over-dramatic, jarring score gives the viewer this poke or nudge of humor and discomfort. It feels like a parody of a soap opera. This outlandish, fun scene is the exact reason why the opening image and first few minutes of a screenplay are so important; it sets the tone, allowing the audience to settle in and get a feel for what is to come. Yet, Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch drive an overwhelming sense of uneasiness and anxiety throughout the runtime as well.

The audience watches as Elizabeth entangles herself into the world of Gracie, Joe, and their seemingly functional family. In no sense of the word is Natalie Portman's character, Elizabeth, this story's hero, but she serves an essential role as the audience's anchor and eyes and ears; what she discovers, the audience does as well. In this, Elizabeth's primary goal of the story is to uncover the true story of Gracie and Joe and how such an extreme and bizarre case can happen. As Elizabeth moves and shifts through the story, so does her perception of Gracie. At first, Gracie appears to be quite unassuming and almost worthy of our sympathy. She is happily married and in love and has raised three children with Joe, one in college and two graduating high school. Gracie runs a to-order bakery, and Joe is an X-ray tech at a local hospital. They seem to be an active part of the community.

Yet, as the story progresses, Elizabeth's notions of Gracie spiral and transform. Gracie is seemingly estranged from her previous family, despite her claims she talks to her son Georgie daily; Georgie even confides to Elizabeth that Gracie is lying. She often appears unstable, overbearing, jealous, and overly protective over Joe in a manner that feels immature and childlike. The bakery never actually receives orders from anyone, Gracie's lawyer and his wife place various orders under different names, and Georgie feeds Elizabeth information that she may have been sexually abused by her brothers as an excuse for her behavior.

As Elizabeth continues her unceasing, unrelenting drive towards perfection, understanding, and turning Gracie into an empathetic, misunderstood figure, the film is in conversation with itself; it asks if making a movie about such horrible topics and glorifying it and the perpetrators in them is right. In doing so, Elizabeth starts to lose herself, although we also are led to believe she never had morals to begin with, cheating on her new fiancé with her director. In her pursuit, Elizabeth wants to empathize with and "become" Gracie, leading her to naively believe the whole "scandal" was never Gracie's fault and that Gracie's brothers' actions created the person before her.

To bring this together, I want to discuss the stand-out performance of the film and one of my favorites of the year from none other than "Riverdale's" own Charles Melton. Portraying Joe, Melton serves as another anchor in the film and gives us invaluable insight into what is actually happening here. Melton effortlessly portrays a character so grown up and forced to do so from such an early age, yet so stunted by all the traumatic events that have led him to where he is now. From taking care of his family and being the "man of the house" to being raped and groomed by Gracie, Joe is a profoundly underdeveloped man who has not grappled with the weight of everything that has happened to him. The prime example of Joe being deeply affected by his trauma, albeit under the surface, is when he and Elizabeth have casual sex. Afterwards, Joe is glowing; he smiles and tucks into bed, but this quickly turns as Portman continues to pry at him. Not understanding that he and Elizabeth won't have a relationship after this, Elizabeth tells him, "This is what adults do." It's a complete signal to us, and Joe, that he is not an adult and that he never grew up, at least not socially. 

The story comes to a haunting end, one which I have not stopped thinking about since my first viewing when Gracie and Elizabeth have their final confrontation. In this, Gracie tells Elizabeth she knows what Georgie told her about her brothers, stating it's a lie, and reaffirms she indeed talks to her children every day. It's a scene that many find ambiguous, but I believe it's the most damning and clear scene in the entire film; Gracie is, in fact, the horrible person the media made her out to be all along. There's no reason or excuse, if there ever could be, for her actions, and she knowingly subdues and babies Joe to maintain control of him. Gracie is a monster.

May December is a tale of so much more than meets the eye. A second viewing is an absolute must.

Final Score: 8/10