“At a certain point, it’s like, ‘are you pretending to feel pleasure, or are you pretending not to feel pleasure?’” says Natalie Portman in Todd Haynes’ latest achievement, May December. Indeed, the film’s subject matter being so innately unsettling, we, the audience, are forced to ask ourselves a similar question: why are we enjoying this?
May December follows actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) who, in preparation for a film role, impresses herself into the lives of Gracie (Julianne Moore) and her husband Joe (Charles Melton). The couple had previously made headlines in the 90s, when Grace became pregnant with Joe’s child despite her being 36, and his being thirteen. It’s different, Gracie assures Elizabeth, for she and Joe are “soulmates.”
The film shifts fluidly between the three perspectives, starting out as a quasi-detective story in which Elizabeth roots through the couple’s lives in search of the truth: what on earth could bring a 36-year-old woman to fall in love with a thirteen-year-old boy? And don’t be mistaken, Joe is still that boy. Melton leans into the inner child which is always bubbling underneath the surface, the inner child who is now thirty-six and has three college-age children. Elizabeth pushes to speak to him alone, to understand his experience, but he assures her that they are indeed the loving couple they present themselves as. It is only when we get glimpses of Joe’s life that we begin to understand the extent to which Gracie controls him; the smallest inconveniences cause breakdowns in which he must care for her and, most eerily, their relationship oscillates between his being mothered and her being fathered.
We soon realise that Elizabeth’s behaviour has gone beyond simply researching for a role. She becomes deeply integrated into the family’s life, going dress-shopping with Gracie and her daughter, visiting Joe on his lunch breaks, and attending graduation dinners. She develops a fixation on perfecting her performance in a style reminiscent of Portman’s Oscar-winning role in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. As we see in the film’s disconcerting final shot, she succeeds, leading us to wonder whether she is still “pretending.”
Amongst the dissection of its characters’ psychology and investigation into age-gaps in relationships, the film presents a fascinating account of the media; specifically, the ways in which it turns such stories into entertainment, be it in the tabliods, or in Hollywood. At one point, Elizabeth watches a porno based on the Joe and Gracie’s relationship, a young boy’s trauma being fetishized by the masses. One wonders whether the audience, by laughing, by criticising, by observing, is just as complicit. What is it about these stories that is so fascinating to us?
May December succeeds because it understands itself – it commits to being a melodrama packed with choices, be that from the three outstanding performers, the stylised (if slightly overbearing) score, or the direction, which employs visual symbolism in a subtle but effective fashion. The level of performance displayed is expected from the likes of Portman and Moore, which, in turn, heaps pressure upon Melton, most known for his performance as Reggie in Riverdale. That said, there are points at which he steals scenes from two era-defining actors which, for a first mainstream dramatic role, is an incredible achievement. With the strikes having delayed the release of certain big Oscar contenders, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this outstanding film take home three statues, one for each of its leads.
“Julianne Moore (15011443428)” by Gordon Correll is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.