Review: 'May December' is a tough drama that looks at a tabloid-famous marriage, and the different filters that see it
The stories we tell — in movies and to ourselves — are explored and exploded in “May December,” director Todd Haynes’ fascinating drama about the blurry line between truth and reality.
Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) is preparing for a family barbecue in their coastal Georgia town, so her husband Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) has put a bunch of hotdogs on the grill. Gracie wanted everything to look perfect, because they’re entertaining a guest: Actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman). Elizabeth, who plays a veterinarian in a popular TV series, has a specific reason to meet Gracie: She’s portraying her in an independent movie that recounts how Gracie, at age 36, began a sexual relationship with Joe, who was in 7th grade at the time.
At her hotel, Elizabeth has a stack of tabloid clippings that tell the story of Gracie going to jail for taking advantage of a teenager — and having a baby while in prison. She also watches the cheap TV movie made about the case shortly after Gracie went to prison.
Elizabeth wants to know what kind of person Gracie really is. She tries to do learn about Gracie, both by talking with her about meeting Joe and by watching her do everyday things like baking cakes and applying her makeup. Elizabeth also wants to go to the places where Gracie and Joe began their relationship, like the stockroom of the pet shop where they worked.
Elizabeth also meets Gracie’s ex-husband, Tom (D.W. Moffett), and their son Georgie (Cory Michael Smith), whose relationship with his mom is strained at best. And she spends time with Gracie and Joe’s kids: Twins Charlie (Gabriel Chung) and Mary (Elizabeth Yu), who are about to graduate from high school, and older daughter Honor (Piper Curda), who was born in prison and is now 24 — and not thrilled with a Hollywood actress poking her nose in the family’s business, and possibly opening old wounds.
Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch (making her feature debut) set up a fascinating story that asks us to witness Gracie and Joe’s daily life, and the self-consciousness that sets in when an outsider puts that life under the microscope. Haynes, who last examined a relationship with a substantial age gap in the hyper-melodramatic “Carol,” turns Elizabeth’s visit into a hall of mirrors — there are multiple scenes of Gracie and Elizabeth regarding each other in mirrors, whether in a bathroom or while watching Mary try on graduation dresses.
Moore — who has collaborated with Haynes on “Safe” (1995), “Far From Heaven” (2002) and “I’m Not There” (2007) — depicts Gracie as someone who tries to treat her long-ago predation of a teenager as a far-off mystery, not seeing how she treats Joe and their children now are a variation on the manipulation that put Gracie and Joe together in the tabloids and in real life. Portman is equal to Moore here, as something of a manipulator herself: An actor trying to use her talents to coerce more information out of her source. The combined heat buns slowly at first, but generates an unbearable heat.
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‘May December’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, November 17, in theaters; starts streaming December 1 on Netflix. Rated R for some sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language. Running time: 117 minutes.