Release Date – 17th November 2023, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 57 minutes, Director – Todd Haynes
Actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) enters the life of out-of-the-limelight Gracie (Julianne Moore) and her younger husband Joe (Charles Melton) in order to research for a film about the controversy around their relationship 20 years before.
Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) insists that all she wants is for Gracie (Julianne Moore) to “feel seen and known”. The actress is visiting the small, coastal town Gracie and her young husband Joe (Charles Melton) live in in order to research for a film she’s been cast to play the former star in. She promises that “it’s a complex and human story” just as the complexities of the relationships, and indeed her investigation, come into play.
Gracie and Joe’s relationship is a controversial one, having made headlines 20 years before due to Gracie being married in her 30s while Joe had only just become a teenager. The scandal swept the country in headlines and while the couple have tried to put the past behind them Elizabeth’s presence brings up questions and hidden feelings. Especially as what’s research and what’s personal begins to conflict and combine.
The main ideas of the past between Gracie and Joe feel somewhat swept aside for much of the film. They’re brought up here and there, but don’t feel properly delved into until near the final stages. It leaves an uncertain air to certain proceedings and the focus nears being how in-depth Elizabeth wants to go for the role, how much she needs to know vs how much she wants to know. We see various scenes between her and Gracie showing their hesitant relationship, with one scene where the pair look into a bathroom mirror and apply make-up seemingly going for a faux sexual tension.
There are plenty of instances throughout May December which appear to be going for campy but simply end up as clunky. Most of the time this is down to individual lines of dialogue bringing you out of a scene like the sound of a dropped pan. When it comes to amusement the best the film can come up with is perhaps its most casual point which feels least like an attempt – as Joe lies on the sofa, drinking beer, eating crisps, watching a documentary about caulk. The more in your face moments are scene endings which feel like their aiming for some form of self-away parody.
As Elizabeth’s connection with the pair changes overtime things simply get more and more crossed over and not in the way the film perhaps intends. Things twist and turn with shifts in focus across various scenes. The overall effect is something rather clunky and eventually unengaging. There may be something somewhat interesting to start with, even if with a stop-start nature thanks to clunky lines of dialogue. However, as the past is truly dug up and other figures from Gracie and Joe’s past have their say as to what happened, and indeed Joe questions the real nature of his marriage and relationship, things go downhill. The film becomes messy and unengaging, and while it might have a level of self-awareness its watered down campiness never really has effect or does anything to lift it up.
Occasionally feeling like its aiming for self-aware parody May December seems to brush aside some of its key themes until too late, with its supposed campiness being overshadowed by its clunky dialogue and eventual overall nature.
Just A Little Bit Random 