Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore Battle for Ultimate Truth in May December
by Jordan Bohan and Danielle Forte
Nearly twenty years after a notorious tabloid romance, Joe (Charles Melton) and Gracie (Julianne Moore) are now a married couple whose relationship is put back under the microscope. When Hollywood actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) meets the couple to conduct research for a film depicting their relationship, tensions run high as the women battle to claim their ultimate truth.
This film perfectly encapsulated our obsession with true crime. Based loosely on the very true and shocking case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher who in 1997 was arrested for having a relationship with one of her sixth grade students. The abuse started when he was only 12 years old. Elizabeth, possibly the entity of a metaphor for true crime fans, comes into Joe’s life and conjures up the trauma he experienced years ago only for him to relive it all again. At first, Elizabeth seemingly wants to “understand” Gracie better, then we see a sinister twist. The film Elizabeth is creating is low budget and will likely not be a box office hit. So was Elizabeth’s film an excuse to get a deeper dive within the true crime case that is Elizabeth and Joe’s immoral marriage? I’d like to think so.
Charles Melton for an Oscar nomination, please! Melton is so clearly a standout in this film given his restrained but compelling performance. In the beginning, you judge him as this socially awkward and almost childlike father and husband. As the film unfolds, you come to realize that he is stuck at the age he was first involved with Gracie and it stunted his development. As Elizabeth begins to pry at their relationship, you see Joe question the origin of his marriage and begin to wonder how he really feels about it — something he hasn’t been given the space to do so far. While the movie mainly focused on Elizabeth’s eerie obsession with mirroring Gracie’s life, it’s Melton’s agonized and tormented performance that truly gives this film its emotional and powerful slow burn.
The real tension tension in this movie is the dynamic between Gracie and Elizabeth. They both come into this experience with their own idea of the truth and is unwilling to bend their perception to consider the others. The dinner table scene is the perfect interaction as Elizabeth tries to pry further into the initial meeting of the couple, making everyone uncomfortable and defensive. This theme of women behaving badly plays out in many ways, but mostly in how Elizabeth seems to detest and obsess over Gracie’s history and frame of mind. Elizabeth is determined to find the truth of how Joe and Gracie came to be the seemingly perfect married couple, all while digging into the pain of their past. In the end, we come to know that Gracie has a tighter grip on her family that Elizabeth once thought and she is forced to reevaluate everything she has come to learn during her time with the couple.
May December is streaming on Netflix.
