May December * * * *

A couple of mature women talking about young boys... and marrying them!

I have always admired the work of Todd Haynes. The last two films I saw of his were Wonderstruck and Dark Waters.  Interestingly they were both different from his usual subject matter which tends to be intimate stories of women. (I"m thinking of  Carol (2015), Far from Heaven (2002), Safe (1995).

Todd likes to work with Julianne Moore.  She is is in half of his films. She's in this one too, which is most definitely about women. 

Todd Haynes did not write May December.  It was written by a newcomer.  The screenplay has the benefit of being unmolested by a hundred "script doctors", but also has the disadvantage of being somewhat self-conscious at times (It seems like everyone has noticed it's Persona moments).

It's a controversial story based upon a real event.  Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) was a married woman in her thirties when she commenced a sexual relationship with a thirteen year old boy. Not only that, but she got pregnant to him, not only that, but she got sentenced to prison which is where she gave birth his daughter, not only that, but when she got out of jail they got married, not only that, but they still live happily together and have raised three children.

In May December the children are now grown up.  Someone wants to make a film on Gracie Atherton. The woman who is to be the lead actress in the production is a TV Star called Elizabeth Berry.  She is played by Natalie Portman.  Elizabeth Berry is the kind of actress who likes to do her research and so she visits and interviews Gracie Atherton on a daily basis to get to know her and her young husband Joe Yu.

Ironically, despite the dominant presence of Portman and Moore, the husband Joe (Charles Merton) just about steals the show in a moving and understated performance of a man who, unlike most young people, never fully enjoyed his development years. He went from being a child to being a married man.  Now he has a hobby of nurturing butterflies, which all becomes rather symbolic. 

As equally insightful are the psychologically intimate scenes of the women together, as they shop, talk, dine and share makeup. 

It's a thoroughly engaging drama that tells much of its story in narrative as Elizabeth Berry interviews Gracie Atherton's family past and present, occasionally opening old wounds, and frequently crossing boundaries, with the egotistical certainty that her fame and beauty gives her licence.

After a while, Elizabeth Berry believes she has finished her research and pinned Gracie Atherton and found the key to what would make a woman in her thirties, in a an established marriage, abandon her family to start again with a boy who is little more than a child.  She believes she is now ready to play the role.

But then Elizabeth Berry learns of a deeper truth than the one she was digging for.... and then a deeper one again..