MAY DECEMBER– 2 STARS

In 2015 after Carol debuted at the Cannes Film Festival that summer, The New York Times described celebrated director Todd Haynes as being known for “making provocative films that subvert narrative structure and resound with transgressive, complex eroticism.” That description fits Todd Haynes to a T alright. Throughout his career, he engages in a lane of bravura storytelling many of his peers are afraid to tread. Moreover, Haynes has an impassioned knack for squeezing compassion from the most entangled places. His latest film, May December, backed by Netflix and standing as his fourth career Palme d’Or nomination, mutates questionable empathy as only he can.

The tabloid inspiration echoing throughout May December is fictionalizing the previous crimes and life of Mary Kay Letourneau and her second husband Vili Fualaau, which shocked dirt rag readers and entertainment TV viewers across the globe during the late 1990s and early 2000s. For the young and uninformed out there, Letourneau was a 34-year-old married school teacher who engaged in a sexual relationship with her 12-year-old former student Vili. Their transgressions led to two counts of second-degree rape, one revoked plea deal, six-and-a-half years of prison, lifetime level 2 sex offender status, a reversed no-contact order, and, wouldn’t you know it, two children (one born in prison) and 12 years of happy marriage. Yowzers! That right there is a whirlwind prestige TV mini-series all its own, but May December is not here to recreate that exposé. 

LESSON #1: LIFE AFTER SCANDAL– Rather, this film follows its Letourneau/Fualaau proxy characters of Gracie Atherton-Yoo and Joe Yoo twenty years after their tawdry scandal. Played by Still Alice Oscar winner Julianne Moore and Riverdale cast member Charles Melton, they are living their blended family private lives with their children in the same community rocked by their news attention all those years ago. To the uninitiated not doing the math with their ages, Gracie and Joe appear to be an enduring portrait of love, despite unhealed local acceptance.

May December portrays their current state not unlike Letourneau’s own as described by a source to People magazine in 2018. As stated then, “They know what everyone thinks about their relationship, and they don’t care. They really never have. The wrong stuff that happened was so long ago. They are two grown adults who are living their lives now.” This is, frankly, a side of scandal aftermath we rarely see– inside or outside dramatic license– and it makes for an intriguing setting created by the script from debut feature screenwriters and longtime industry workers Samy Burch (casting director) and Alex Mechanik (editor).

Their invented catalyst for drama is Black Swan Oscar winner Natalie Portman’s arrival as actress Elizabeth Berry to the southern Georgia homestead in Tybee Island. The accomplished star is producing and starring in an upcoming film of Gracie’s story. Gracie has agreed to let Elizabeth interview her and her family over a weekend. Elizabeth’s arrival and celebrity aura turns more than a few heads all over town.

LESSON #2: RESEARCHING OR PROFILING A ROLE– Berry says all the right and convincing things with her stance of telling the complex and human story right. It is answered by Gracie’s simple request of “be kind.” However, this is a Todd Haynes film, where nothing about this examination is simple. With an internal monologue of discovery and her “Hollywood type” sunglasses acting like both mask and microscope, Elizabeth probes every intimate detail she can glean, from posture observations and voice inflection to the types and ways Gracie wears makeup. She wants to prove whether a woman like Gracie was born the way they were or made.

When sharing space with a breathy, two-way volley of each other’s thorny interests and inquiries and an invisible grudge match of cheekbones, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman grab your suspenseful attention. Gracie’s fragile and collapsing avoidance portrayed by Moore is presented to clash with Portman’s increasingly creepy emulation as Elizabeth. This rare face-off of two titan actresses sharing twin billing is an exercise of being on some of the sharpest pins and needles, while you await possible carnal sins to overwhelm the already-murky relationships.

No matter how much Gracie presents a woman carrying no guilt, shame, doubt, or regrets about her crimes, prison time, divorce, and estranged adult children from her first marriage, not everyone connected to her is so composed. Elizabeth’s brazen probing dredges up old history that breaks down people’s guards. Elizabeth, the viewer, and, in turn, a perturbed musical score from composer Marcelo Zarvos borrowing obnoxious old stingers from Michel Legrand’s 1971 work on The Go-Between can all cut the awkwardness with a dull butter knife. It’s that thick, obvious, and soft in May December.

Unfortunately on many levels, the release of built-up tension never fully arrives and takes on problematic twists of its own. Try as he may, Charles Melton is incredibly outmatched by his female counterparts. His Joe is not concrete enough to support Gracie and not interesting enough to challenge Elizabeth. Melton’s bland arrivals and inclusions grind the movie to a halt instead of accelerating it. Entire layers of potential mystery are lost and swapped for rank melodrama that would make even the gaudy evening soaps of the 1980s like Dynasty and Dallas cringe to the point where substance sours to unintentional comedy.

LESSON #3: ANSWERING TABOO WITH MORE TABOO– While ambitious as a ripe tangent in borrowing a real-life scandal, the whole shadowing angle of May December overloads what was excessive enough as off-screen history to begin with. Applying a smattering of unlikely kinks and a confounding third act of insecurity swerves sinks the film. Haynes is left with a mood piece of examining taboo with more taboo. and it gets unattractively lost in just that very vibe.