TMS Movie Review: May December
(Netflix)
WARNING: This review contains spoilers
It’s tricky when someone who is clearly a victim from a public viewpoint doesn’t want to be labeled a victim. Brooke Shields still calls Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978) a beautiful piece of filmmaking despite the general consensus that she shouldn’t have appeared nude on screen at age 12. Many former teen girlfriends of adult men, like the subject of Sofia Coppola’s recent Priscilla, choose not to see their experience as abuse or a power imbalance. In more recent years there has been gossip on former child star turned character actor Aaron Johnson beginning his relationship with wife, director Sam Taylor-Johnson, when he was 17/18 and she was 40/41 years old. In Todd Haynes’ new film out on Netflix, May December, we have a satire clearly inspired by the real 1997 case of 35-year-old schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau who was exposed and arrested for taking advantage of her 13-year-old student Vili Fualaau. What shocked the world was not only the age difference, but the fact that the pair stayed together to get married and raise a family.
The film also works as commentary on how self-important Hollywood comes across when they produce biopics and historical dramas about serious incidents. With May December, Natalie Portman plays Elizabeth Berry, a TV actress traveling to Savannah, GA, to do research for a character in an indie drama based on a real scandal. The subjects are local spouses, 59-year-old Gracie (Julianne Moore) and 36-year-old Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), with Elizabeth cast as the former. Though the couple are apprehensive at first, they invite the star over for an extended visit while their twins, Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung), are graduating high school. For the next week, Elizabeth gets her share of details and secrets that shock and fascinate her.
(Netflix)
Rather than frame the movie as a typical drama, Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch choose the dark comedy route, most evident with Marcelo Zarvos’ score. The constant piano channels the usual cues and transitions associated with an era when exploitative gossip/drama was normal in tabloids and daytime TV. Because the subject of May December is sensitive, none of the campy moments or comic relief are directed at Melton’s character, but rather at how ridiculous all the other, much older adults are in his life. Portman’s Elizabeth is naturally disturbed by the backstory of the much older woman/younger man relationship she’s witnessing, but also unashamedly using it more for her performance than any actual justice. The scenes where she interviews Gracie, Joe, their family and their friends look like an investigative journalist crafting an expose, when it’s actually just inspiration for a flashy movie role. Moore begins May December as the ordinary, everyday mom/housewife to the viewer before unveiling into a truly pathetic and despicable person by the end. The most sympathetic is naturally Melton as Joe, who tragically realizes during Elizabeth’s visit that he doesn’t really have anyone on his side besides his kids. He is now forced to come to terms that his marriage and adult life decisions weren’t entirely consensual. In real life, Vili and Mary Kay separated in 2019 a year before the former teacher died from cancer; and sources close to the two have suggested Vili began to realize how unhealthy their relationship was. Portman herself even revealed during press for December that she has regrets about beginning her career as a child star. Eventually adult perspective can come through and change everything you might have been initially comfortable with as an adolescent.
May December treads the line of commentary and irony, so it doesn’t necessarily offer a solution for Joe or this kind of episode in general. Life goes on, as it usually does in real life. The filmmakers make it obvious that Elizabeth and Gracie aren’t good people and conclude the tale on an amusing and clever note at Elizabeth’s expense. If you’re comfortable with the subversive tone and dark humor of the acting and Haynes’ direction, May December could be worth a watch for you.