May December

I thought it was boring and slow. They kept playing dramatic music like something horrible and shocking was going to happen. But nothing ever did.

I understand it's supposed to be about the Mary Kay Letourneau situation. Indicating it was an unhealthy relationship. And how older women can take unfair advantage of younger men.

I thought technically it was done well. The acting was good. I like Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. And Charles Melton got a lot of raves on his performance.

But it seemed like this movie never went anywhere. I kept waiting for something to happen. But nothing ever did.

I think viewers will enjoy this movie more, if they know --- going in --- it's supposed to represent the Mary Kay Letourneau situation. Otherwise like me, they may be left holding out their hands as if to ask, "What was that supposed to be?"

Greetings again from the darkness. Contentedly, most us live our lives in a manner that would never be worthy of tabloid headlines. Not so for Gracie in this psychologically complex new film from expert director Todd Haynes (FAR FROM HEAVEN, 2002) and writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. Early on, Haynes shows us those tabloids featuring Gracie's scandal following her seduction of 7th grader Joe in the stock room of the local pet store. She was 36 years old, and he was 13. Soon after, Gracie went to prison, where she bore their first child.

The story picks up 24 years later as Gracie and Joe are married, and their second and third children, twins Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung), are graduating high school and preparing to ship off to college. In other words, they are all living a fairly normal life. However, as a harsh reminder that their lives are not actually normal, Elizabeth (Oscar winner Natalie Portman) arrives at their Savannah home to research her role as Gracie in an upcoming indie film about the scandal.

Oscar winner Julianne Moore plays Gracie, in her fourth collaboration with director Haynes. Charles Melton (THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR, 2019) plays Joe, who is now the same age as Elizabeth, as well as the kids from Gracie's first marriage. Elizabeth is polite and apologetic as she initially treads carefully in asking probing questions of the family and their friends. Her approach generates some awkward moments, and although Gracie seems to hold firmly to her did-nothing-wrong stance, it's Joe who begins to question things ... mimicking the slow development of the Monarch butterflies he breeds.

Perhaps the film's best sequence occurs when actress Elizabeth shows up for a Q&A with Mary and Charlie's class. When the question gets a bit risqué, Elizabeth's answer borders on inappropriate, and is an honest depiction of the fine line between acting and reality. Back at the house, Elizabeth's questions raise previously unspoken doubts, as well as the ongoing impact of the scandal ... not the least of which are periodic postal deliveries of excrement denoting some of the public's view of a female predator.

The similarities to the true-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau are inescapable, though a twist here is that Gracie and Joe's recollection of how things started are not necessarily in sync. Savannah is always a character unto itself, and the accompanying music is eerily spot on ... including the repurposing of Michel Legrand's score from THE GO-BETWEEN (1971). The three lead actors (Ms. Portman, Ms. Moore, Mr. Melton) are terrific, and director Haynes has delivered yet another complex movie that gives the appearance of simplicity due to how beautifully it's done.

Opens in select theaters on November 17, 2023 and streams on Netflix beginning December 1, 2023.

Before seeing the film I was very curious, I think the story was interesting, along with a renowned director and a very good cast starring Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and a surprising Charles Melton.

I felt that the film had a lot to exploit with the psychological aspect of the characters, because basically that's where the appeal comes from, an actress who has to analyze the person behind the media character to interpret her.

But I think the script rambles too much and ends up not being very conclusive in all the aspects it tries to cover, its story remains a big what if.

But it's also true, Natalie Portman and Charles Melton were brilliant with their performances, Julianne Moore too. I think it could have been a great movie but it fell short.

This movie is based on subtext and doesn't have an overt narrative that progresses like most films.

This movie is about the about one of the worst crimes that exists - CSA (look it up). If you understand it's generational and also very difficult to comprehend this movie will hit you HARD.

That being said, this is a very well done movie about adults who are really just children. They never healed from their traumas and what ensues is a vision of how life is when you ignore that stuff.

I personally have dealt this this crap, and ignoring it is the easy way out...but leads to a unlived life. You have to put the bright lights on it which is what Natalie Portman's character does.

The movie is for people that love film as art - not narrative. It is very well done. All the acting is based on nuanced subtext. The score and the cinematography are also very well done (I love slow zooms...sue me).

Overall it's a great film if you can just absorb the artform of a well paced uncovering of the aftermath of a crime and what happens when you steal innocence. It's a truly remarkable movie that will impact people that understand this dynamic in life. 8/10.

In moviemaking, there's subtlety, and then there's subtlety carried too far. In the case of director Todd Haynes's latest, the filmmaker unfortunately indulges himself far too much in the latter. This story of an actress (Natalie Portman) who visits a middle-aged sex offender (Julianne Moore) to prepare for a role she's about to play in a movie about her subject's life never seems to find a footing to stick with and explore. The narrative examines many different aspects of the back story behind the lives of the characters to be portrayed in this pending production without ever really resolving any of them by the time the credits roll. This includes not only the protagonist's reasons for pursuing her once-underage husband (Charles Melton) - actions that got her jailed and made her fodder for countless tawdry tabloid cover stories - but also the nature of the actress's real motivations in conducting such an excessively intense in-depth study of her character. In the process, virtually everyone comes across as somewhat unsavory, and, considering that the truth is never clearly revealed about any of them, it begs the question, why should we care about any of this? The film depicts all of this so subtly that it goes beyond nuance, veering into the realm of enigmatic, thereby further reinforcing the notion of why any of us should care. Ironically, these underplayed elements are in stark contrast to some rather obvious (and terribly trite) symbolism, particularly in images related to themes of transition and transformation. The picture's inconsistent changes in tone don't help, either, vacillating between allegedly serious drama and a seemingly underdeveloped desire to break out as an exercise in full-fledged camp (which, by the way, probably would have made this a much better offering). The script's meandering flow and glacial pacing also don't help, leaving viewers scratching their heads more often than not as to where this story is headed. In the end, all of the foregoing is ultimately quite unfortunate, because there's definite potential in this project, but it's never adequately defined and fleshed out. Leads Moore and (especially) Portman turn in admirable efforts to make this material fly, but they simply don't have enough to work with to make that happen. While there appear to be allusions to themes like the difficulty involved in dealing with long-buried feelings and the fact that we may never be able to adequately grasp the truth behind them (either as outsiders looking in or as active participants in the midst of such dealings), the cryptic handling of those ideas undermines whatever meaningful messages or cinematic value they might have, making all of this seem like just such a big waste of time. Director Haynes has an impressive filmography behind him with such releases as "Poison" (1991), "Far From Heaven" (2002) and "Dark Waters" (2019), but, regrettably, "May December" certainly can't be counted as part of that list.