May December [2023]

 As Todd Haynes’ May December opens, we see a warm social gathering, on a sunny day, at the charming house of Gracie (Julianne Moore), genially hosting her guests, and her husband Joe (Charles Melton), operating a barbecue grill. Something, however, is clearly off, as Gracie seems overly effusive, while Joe appears withdrawn. And, if their massive age difference doesn’t mean anything in itself, it gains disturbing ramifications when it's eventually revealed that 23 years back, the then 36-year-old Gracie was caught being intimate with 13-year-old Joe. Loosely based on Mary Kay Letourneau, this had created a massive public scandal, evoked media frenzy, and led to her arrest and prison sentence during which she ended up giving birth to Joe’s child; most bizarrely, she resumed this paedophilic affair upon release, left her husband and son, and married Joe; furthermore, they had more kids, and even ended up staying together since then. The film’s opening added an intriguing parallel dimension in the form of acclaimed actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) joining them to initiate her preparedness for portraying Gracie for an “independent film” in the making, thus cheekily alluding to greater nuance and respectability vis-à-vis lurid tabloids and exploitative telenovelas. Elizabeth walks a fine line between detached observations and sly manipulations, as her voyeuristic curiosity and saviour complex get simultaneously stoked while embedding herself into their lives. Meanwhile, in parallel, we see Gracie’s conniving relationship with the thoroughly lost Joe, who she bullies, stonewalls and weepily manipulates depending on what the situation demands. Shot in overexposed images resembling soap operas and led by the two solid lead turns, it captured the double manipulations and fraught relationships with cool rigour and parodic self-awareness.

Director: Todd Haynes

Genre: Drama/Marital Drama/Psychological Drama

Language: English

Country: US