Film Review: MAY DECEMBER (2023): Todd Haynes’ Flawed Character Study Features a Trifecta of Knockout Performances

May December Review

May December (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Todd Haynes, written by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik and starring Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Charles Melton, Chris Tenzis, Andrea Frankle, Gabriel Chung, Mikenzie Taylor, Jocelyn Shelfo, Elizabeth Yu, Mike Lopez, Joan Reilly, D.W. Moffett, Charles Green, Christopher Nguyen, Lawrence Arancio, Cory Michael Smith and Kelvin Yan Hee.

Todd Haynes has crafted an unusually awkward dramatic story featuring characters that are hard to relate to with his latest, May December. Whether you can feel sympathetic towards the characters of Haynes’ new film or not, there’s no denying the tremendous quality of its three central performances by Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and Charles Melton. The surprising revelation is that Melton hits it out of the park with his supporting performance, more than holding his own opposite Oscar winners Moore and Portman. The film centers its action in Savannah, Ga. where Portman’s actress character, Elizabeth Berry, has arrived to do research for a role she’s going to play. When she meets the real woman who she is going to portray, Gracie Atherton (Moore), these two women seem to form an unusual connection as things happen that shed light on what made Elizabeth and Gracie the women that they’ve become.

What makes Gracie’s story interesting to the public is that she had an affair with a young boy years ago, served time in jail for doing so and has now come to live with that boy who she has children with and is named Joe Yoo (Melton). He is now in his 30’s. Elizabeth is a character who would make for an interesting juxtaposition to Portman’s ballet dancer character in Black Swan. Both characters are enormously ambitious to a fault and their work consumes them. Elizabeth becomes very intrigued with the story of Gracie and Joe.

Gracie and Joe had an affair while working at a pet store and their lives changed forever as a result. While we meet them and get a history of Gracie’s previous life before having sex with Joe, there’s not much here to shed light on why, exactly, Gracie ended up in her current predicament. She still receives nasty mail that has unspeakable contents in it and it’s hard to truly grasp why she would continue to suffer for the relationship which led her to prison. Perhaps, she has no choice as the story has swept the nation and is helping Gracie support her family.

Elizabeth studies Gracie and seems intent on getting the most profound performance possible out of herself. Gracie and Elizabeth share some intimate moments together which help develop their characters but occasionally feel quite unusual in the context of the picture. It’s almost like these two women have come together to exploit one another. Gracie is exploiting her story for survival purposes while Elizabeth is tinkering with her art to fit the demands of her craft. Elizabeth comes to learn a lot about Gracie but, sometimes, the mundane aspects of Gracie’s life come across as rather trite and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

D.W. Moffett serves as Gracie’s ex-husband, and his interaction with Elizabeth initially seems harmless enough but Gracie’s actions have destroyed her old family’s lives in certain pivotal ways. Gracie has many layers which are revealed throughout the picture. By film’s end, the audience may have come to some conclusions as to why she has made the life choices she has but we also get to question how Elizabeth gets too close to Gracie for their own good. Elizabeth and Gracie have some fierce moments that are filled with intensity and these are some of the best parts of the movie.

Melton’s Joe could break the viewer’s heart. Joe seems like he’s on this never-ending roller coaster of a ride called his life and although it feels like everything was consensual, it often feels like Joe has done what he had to do to justify the choices which he made when he was younger. Portman’s Elizabeth seems a bit obsessed but then the movie never really takes us to places it could have regarding that obsession. The events of the movie suggest to the audience that some dire things could happen but never really do, for whatever reason.

Moore is certainly first-rate here. At the opening of the picture, Moore’s Gracie looks for hot dogs for a barbecue and seems totally erratic on the surface–she’s alas wildly unpredictable. She and Portman have one scene, in particular, involving a mirror together that is absolutely riveting to behold. Portman will also challenge the audience with a wild scene where she talks to a high school drama club. The aftereffects of that scene on viewers will probably determine how they feel about Portman’s character overall.

May December is mainly about the past and the present and how they are interconnected. It is about the attempted creation of the “truth” and how trying to mold the elements of the past and the present together takes true artistry. It’s about creating compelling art out of the fabric of real life and, in that regard, Haynes has crafted a rather intriguing drama. There’s no really devastating resolve to this story. This film kind of just exists for the viewer to draw their own conclusions and, of course, for its three amazing performances. The biggest surprise is that opposite two heavy-hitters like Moore and Portman, it may just be Melton whose performance gets him the ticket to next year’s Oscars with a nomination. Moore and Portman have had Oscar glory and have showier roles in May December but Melton can quietly steal the spotlight through his quiet, fascinating work in this film.

Rating: 7/10

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