Controversy of real-life story skirted
Film gives no opportunity to explore motivation
May December (R, 117 mins) In some cinemas and renting on streamers Arovision, Neon and Apple Directed by Todd Haynes Reviewed by Jen Shieff
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The well-preserved, historic parts of Savannah, Georgia, make a perfect backdrop for May December with its many contrasts, alongside the large family home with a barbecue and an under-renovation pool on the far side of nearby strange, marshy, humid forests with dangling Spanish moss.
According to director Todd Haynes, talking to the Hollywood Reporter, the setting’s details complemented the movie’s tone.
The two main characters, a couple called Gracie (Julianne Moore, elegant and white) and her husband Joe (Charles Melton, slow-moving, cool, of Korean descent) are polar opposites at the heart of a “May December” relationship — American vernacular for a relationship with a big age gap.
It’s set in May, too, with spring bursting out, their kids’ graduation imminent.
Gracie is a nervy, cake-baking housewife, a sharp-edged contrast with unassuming Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), an actress famous for soap commercials, in her first drama, merging with Gracie’s family for two weeks while she researches her role: she’s playing Gracie.
She wants to speak Gracie’s truth, but it’s hard for Elizabeth when she’s ultimately confused by Gracie.
The story is loosely based on the much-publicised case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a married Seattle teacher who, aged 34 in 1996, seduced her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau.
She was convicted of rape of a child.
To get into her role, Elizabeth pores over old magazines with tabloid headlines including “Pet Shop Romance” and “Gracie’s Story: My Babies Behind Bars!”
Once released from prison, having given birth to twins there, Gracie never admits her guilt, claiming there was no crime; all she did was fall in love.
Elizabeth and Gracie both do odd things that send themselves up, an element of comedy that seems unintended, although production house Netflix entered the film in the Sundance Film Festival’s dark comedy category, suggesting Todd Haynes wants us to have a snigger, probably at them both.
There’s an unawareness that pervades the film.
While looking in a mirror, standing beside each other, Moore and Portman show Gracie as an ordinary woman, naive and disconnected.
If the truth is that she’s monstrous, it’s our own thoughts that make her so — it’s up to us to judge her, or not, for how she behaved when Joe was 12 and presumably didn’t have a chance to say no to her.
Joe, now aged 36 and with a passion for monarch butterflies, suggests in a dope-smoking interlude with his teenaged son Charlie (Gabriel Chung) that he’s about to break free.
Until that moment, he’s been a stunted man, a childhood sexual abuse survivor, still in thrall to Gracie, but he seems to wake up when she accuses him, saying, “You seduced me,” and asking, “Who was in charge?”
The screenplay by Samy Burch is almost creepily polite, with Elizabeth saying thank you to Gracie and her family dozens of times; there’s lots of papering over various deceits and self-delusions. Determined to appear to be perfect, Gracie leaves no opportunity for the film to explore the motivation for her crime, leaving audiences to do that for themselves.
Rating: Three and a half stars