May December Review: A Heartbreaking Tale of Love!

May December premiered at the New York Film Festival this year as the opening film, directed by Todd Haynes who is primarily known for his film Carol in 2015. With two leads including Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, it would seem this movie would be a star powered performance film, having two of the best actresses of our time.

It did not come as a surprise that May December was a powerful film that blurred the lines of our preconceived notions on relationships and marriage. However, the central beauty of this film turned out to be the balance of heartbreaking moments and comedic fusion that brought the film all the way to its profound yet complicated conclusion.

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Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) travels to Savannah Georgia in an effort to observe the life of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman she will be portraying in a film based off of Gracie’s life. What seems to be an actor’s duty to discover the authenticity of her subject unfolds into a horrifying realization as to why Gracie is so “famous” across the country. Decades after the tabloid scandal Gracie became a part of with her now husband Joe (Charles Melton) Elizabeth must confront the woman Gracie is known to be by the media, a woman who had an affair with a seventh grader at the age of 36.

May December script is incredibly constructed to unravel details about the scandal and our characters in a timely fashion. Screenwriter Samy Burch has a way of carefully unraveling information to the audience through minor details rather than using monologues or dialogue to tell us. The actions of the characters make the audience feel curious, knowing that something is strange within the Yoo family before dropping the bomb on us outright. It would have been easy to lay out the scandal in front of the audience early to gain immediate reactions but Burch and Haynes understand the gravity of “love” and victimhood in the film’s context enough to display all sides to such a complex situation.

Performance based films are not typically the strongest cinematically for this critic, however the importance of Portman, Moore, and Melton’s acting abilities play a major role in understanding the story at hand, given it is a psychological journey into the mind of a sexual offender and her victim, even if Joe does not see himself as one. Charles Melton gives the most profound and heartbreaking performance in the film and in his career.

Joe is not given a lot of dialogue in the film but his more timid nature reinforces the pain of seeing a thirty something year old man trapped in the mind of a seventh grader who’s life was stolen from him. There are so many instances in the film where dialogue and actions between Gracie and Joe only reinforce the power imbalance and manipulation of Gracie towards Joe.

May December has a way of answering the central questions in the film through subtle details that give us an inclination as to why characters make the decisions they do even if the film does not justify them. Seeing Gracie and Joe’s marriage and family (having three children of their own) complicates our judgments, seeing Joe as a great father to his children.

It brings up the question as to, can a child and a grown woman really fall in love, having seen them raise a family together and fight through public opinion? Haynes and Burch have a way of not persuading the audience to question their own beliefs but instead display the complexity of life that makes situations more realistic instead of black and white. May December deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

‘May December’ Rating – 4.5/5

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