"May December" Movie Review

“I’ve lost track of where the line is. Who even draws these lines?”

This is the bone-chilling theme of the Netflix film “May December,” which after a short run in theaters, debuted on the platform last week.

“May December” stars Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton, a woman who had an affair with a seventh-grade student named Joe (Charles Melton) while they worked at a local pet shop together.

She went to prison pregnant with his child, and when she was released, the pair married.

It is based on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who raped and later married her 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau.

The film opens in 2005, with Gracie and Joe’s twin son and daughter about to graduate from high school.

Cinematographer Chris Blauvelt created a glowy, almost hazy atmosphere where Gracie and Joe are barbequing with some friends in the film’s first scene.

The score is a jolting piano arrangement, which contrasts the calmness of the summer day. That contrast becomes more important later on in the film.

Gracie and a friend discuss how a Hollywood actress named Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) was cast to play her in an upcoming film, and she’d be coming over to observe the Atherton-Yoo family in their home and work lives.

The casting for “May December” takes effect immediately in the film, when Gracie and Joe embrace and make the viewer’s stomach drop. The age gap is first established visually, with Moore’s vibrant white hair clashing with Melton’s blemish-free skin and athletic build.

When Elizabeth arrives at the house, there’s a package on the porch filled with excrement. It spurs Elizabeth to ask if that’s a common occurrence, and Gracie says it used to be, but it’s gotten better in recent years.

A brilliant tool Moore uses while playing Gracie is immediately shutting down emotionally whenever a concern is raised about her life.

On the surface, it seems nothing could shake Gracie after the media hate storm her affair brought upon her, but in private, she breaks down to Joe after this package comes.

Portman also plays the part of the “imposter” brilliantly in this film, someone who shouldn’t be allowed to pop the bubble Gracie and Joe constructed around their lives, but one they let in because she promises to tell their story truthfully.

Elizabeth’s spiral away from herself and towards Gracie is disturbing to watch during the film, especially during a scene where she describes what it’s like to film a sex scene in front of high school drama students.

These are still children, even if they jokingly asked the question in the first place.

Instead of shying away from the topic as most adults would, she leans into the discomfort and unknowingly creates a new parallel between her and Gracie.

However, the standout performance in “May December” came from “Riverdale” alum, Charles Melton.

It’s difficult to connect with Melton’s character, Joe, as he doesn’t really seem to have a personality.

He’s shy, closed off, and carries himself hunched over as if he’s unsure of every movement he makes. It’s almost as if he’s still a 13-year-old boy, frozen in time.

Joe was forced to grow up too fast, but it seems as though he never truly grew up at all.

In one scene, Elizabeth asks him if he’s ever had doubts about his relationship with Gracie.

He timidly says “I’ve had crushes before,” a phrase typically used by adolescents who’ve never experienced a true relationship, much less a marriage with children about to go off to college.

Melton’s performance reminds the audience that Joe is a victim, and Gracie stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that her actions were wrong even after going to jail for them.

So now not only was the physical age gap established, but the mental and emotional rift between Joe and Gracie as well.

During the graduation of Joe and Gracie’s twins, Joe stands down on the high school track instead of sitting in the bleachers with Gracie.

It’s the most poignant and heartbreaking scene in the film, Melton starts crying as his kids walk across the stage.

It’s clear the tears are for his lost youth, how he’s trapped down on the track among the high schoolers because he never got to live out his traditional high school years.

For so long his feelings were repressed by Gracie’s dominance in the relationship, but Elizabeth opened his eyes to how he can escape now if he wants to.

The film closes with Elizabeth fully embodying the role of Gracie in her movie, and the final line is perhaps the most distressing part of the entire film.

Director Todd Haynes leaves the audience reeling in the discomfort he brewed during the entirety of “May December.”

It is a deeply nuanced and artful film but nearly impossible to imagine watching a second time.

Rating: 4/5

Kaitlyn Murphy is a second-year majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact her, email kvm6255@psu.edu.