REVIEW: May December is an actor’s dream, and a family’s nightmare
Posted November 16, 2023 10:04 pm.
To be an actor is to inhabit a character. That could be a fictional person, a character simply created for a production. But an actor can also play real people, which can be a huge challenge. To capture their charms and quirks, their essence. To represent them in a way so that those close to them and those who know nothing of them can understand who this person is. Whether Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up, Liam Neeson in Schindler’s List, or Meryl Streep in the Iron Lady it’s a fine line to walk between imitation and character creation. But what if the person an actor is playing is someone who committed a terrible crime?
May December isn’t about any real people, but it does run with this question as its premise. It stars Natalie Portman (from Black Swan) and Julianne Moore (from Still Alice). Portman plays Elizabeth, an actor getting ready to play Moore’s character Gracie, who years ago was arrested for sleeping with a 12 year old boy. Since getting out of jail, she abandoned her family and married the boy (played by Charles Melton from Riverdale) and has three children with him. They’ve built a happy little slice of life for themselves, and they’re now welcoming in this actress so she can study Gracie and portray her story correctly.
Directed by Todd Haynes (the filmmaker behind I’m Not There, Dark Waters, and Far From Heaven), this film examines a recurring theme in his work. Portrayals of real life people and how best to represent them. He’s made two idiosyncratic biopics of beloved musicians (David Bowie in Velvet Goldmine and Bob Dylan in I’m Not There), as well as a more straightforward biopic of environmental attorney Robert Bilott in Dark Waters. It’s something he’s been interested in since the very beginning of his career with his short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Examining the actor’s method is a process audiences aren’t usually made part of.
Both Portman and Moore share the spotlight here, but the story here belongs to Portman. Her character is drawn to the role partially due to the taboo nature of it, but also become of the seemingly wholesome family life the sex offender and her victim have made for themselves. Many scenes are devoted to characters questioning her. Her desire for this role, her methods for learning about Gracie, her voyeuristic time spent with the family. It’s a role that Portman has spent her entire career playing for, one in which she looks inward toward her method.
While her story is the film’s main concern, Moore is the one who gets to truly act. She’s playing a unique character, a self-deluding person convinced of her security while begging others for their support. Portman seems to be playing a version of herself, reacting to Moore who Moore builds up a character with an odd accent and strange mannerisms. She has the more showy performance, while Portman follows her around slowly becoming her. It’s a fascinating experience to watch someone who’s created this persona to mask their evil from everyone (including themselves), and someone following them around to learn how to recreate the mask.
While the two of them are an excellent pairing, especially in several scenes where Portman studies Moore, neither are the film’s greatest element. Charles Melton is astoundingly good. He plays the willing victim, someone who goes along with his wife’s assertion that he was the instigator in their sexual encounters and romantic relationship. When Elizabeth comes into his family’s life, he begins to notice just strange this relationship looks to an outsider. The entire film, his performance is layers slowly being peeled revealing a frightened little boy who lost his life in a choice he was too young to responsibly make. I imagine his career will unfold similarly to Jacob Elordi’s, starting with YA-type content and branching out into actually interesting and engaging material.
A film about the actor’s journey might sound uninteresting to many, but it is incredibly thrilling. As Portman’s character spends more time with the family, she uncovers more dirt and shocking material to work with, with the film’s score and intense cinematography. Some of the film’s most thrilling scenes are close-ups of both Portman and Moore in frame going over how to do Moore’s makeup together. It’s like looking into a portrait but treating it as a mirror.
May December depicts a very uncomfortable situation, but dives headfirst into it in a search for understanding. It’s a compassionate, yet accountable film focusing on the actor’s method which makes for an invigorating watch. I give this film a 4.5/5, you can watch it in cinemas now or on Netflix starting December 1st.
