There are so many layers to peel back in Todd Haynes “May December” that it can be difficult to extrapolate everything and understand each new revelation. It is even more difficult to summarize it all into a single review. Not only are its themes, narrative, tone and cultural critiques deeply affecting and profound, but its characters are equally as complex and complicated. “May December” is such a character driven piece of work that both the characters and performances themselves require a deeper dive, particularly because many of the leads are delivering some of their best work in years. There are no wasted parts here, with each person we encounter adding yet another perspective and puzzle piece to this seductive near noir investigation of the truth uncovered from people filled with lies and selfish motivations.
Because of what the film is about, it’s important to understand the characters that make up this rather uncomfortable story. So, in this second part of our “May December” review, we’re going to be taking a closer look at each character in the film; their performance, their purpose, their perspectives and how they enhance this standout work. We’ll be looking at 5 different performances: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton who are the 3 leads of “May December,” the children of their scandalous relationship, and finally all of the people that surround our characters. It won’t necessarily be in that order, but that’s a preview f where this deep dive is going! Each section will be noted with a quote from the film that encapsulates the character or characters. The script (as noted in our part 1 review) is packed with razor sharp dialogue So let’s get into the complicated characters and stellar performances in “May December.”
“It’s a Kindness…”
One of the smartest choices of “May December” is to never thrust us into the height of the scandal, nor does it allow itself to be exploitative in the ways that it is inherently criticizing. Because “May December” takes place exclusively 20 something years after the events the frenzy has died down, we are forced to learn everything about the past from untrustworthy narrators in the present. This includes Gracie’s (Moore) ex husband, her children from her previous marriage before the scandalous affair, her lawyer, and even the people of the town. There’s a sense that the townspeople have largely forgiven her due to how much time has passed, but we learn rather quickly that’s not really the case. For the people of Savannah, our first introduction to them is a juxtaposition of attitudes: half the town seems content with just leaving the past in the past and rather than rattle the cage again, they would much prefer to just indulge the couple and attend their barbeques and accept them at a distance. The other half leaves boxes of shit on their doorstep every few months, a reminder that while they are welcomed by some in the quiet small town, they aren’t forgiven at all.
What we learn from these small characters that surround the leads is that everything that seems like acceptance is actually just a kindness. No one seems to really want them around, but they also don’t want to have to keep reliving the events, so they treat them with a facade of kindness and acceptance. They do things like buy Gracie’s cakes and pies for her baking business that seems to be thriving. But just as we’re meant to believe that they truly are a meaningful part of the community, “May December” subtly pulls the veil from the illusion as Gracie’s lawyer tells Elizabeth (Portman) during a lunch interview that all of the orders are from the same 5 people. Every month they make the same orders, implying they don’t actually need the cakes but they’re just being kind and essentially placating Gracie to keep her at bay. It is a revelation of just how much this affair has effected everyone, and how important the small town setting of “May December” actually is.
We also see the destructive wake of Gracie’s family she left behind, with her ex-husband still unable to understand what went wrong. He even says to Elizabeth in a small moment of vulnerability questions what could make a grown woman pursue a 7th grader. But he too has a different understanding of their marriage and family, and “May December” calls into question some of the gossip and tidbits Elizabeth collects. This is also present in the interactions with Gracie’s oldest son Georgie (Corey Michael Smith giving probably one of the funniest performances in the film) who essentially represents all of the repercussions and fallout in one single erratic, also manipulative person. “May December” utilizes every single character to paint a complicated portrait of its leads, and with every illusion they create for themselves someone else has just a little bit of information that they reveal to complicate things. It’s the power of the film and great cinema.
“When I graduated, you got me a scale.”
Beyond its difficult and uncomfortable story, “May December” has a unique challenge: how do you portray children who are the product of a relationship rooted in abuse and scandal? What kind of kids would they be with a father who never actually had the opportunity to experience the things he’s parenting? How do you navigate and survive in a world where the whole world seemingly knows your origin story? Burch’s excellent script and Haynes expert direction manages to pull this off in emotional, meaningful ways, walking the tightrope of traumatized kids who are also desperately trying to be normal. Here is yet another example of why the setting of “May December” is so important. In a small town, it can be easy to live life in a vaccum. While the town may know the truth (or their version of it), you get the sense that they don’t ever bring up what happened so the kids can live something of a normal life. But of course, everyone knows something is off, and even the youngest twins set to graduate in a week know that what they have and what they’re trying to maintain isn’t quite right.
This is exacerbated by Gracie’s incredibly dominating and manipulative actions. These kids love their father and at times almost feel bad for him, and deeply resent their mother. Every interaction with Gracie and her children in “May December” is deeply uncomfortable, with the unspoken sins and controlling nature of their mother’s facade dictating every single thing they do. We see this fake pretty little life Gracie has tried to pretend they have crack a few times, but none more than when their oldest daughter who has been away from the house for college returns to see her siblings graduate. There is a clear distinction between how she talks about her family, and “May December” once agains drops little nuggets of disdain and disillusion to notate that Honor (Piper Curda) has a whole different perspective of her family having been removed from them. This explodes at the dinner table, where we see those little fissures in Gracie’s world seep through as Honor publicly challenges her.
There is a touching moment with Joe (Melton) and his son Charlie on the roof, where he gets his dad high for the first time and you see the dynamic of their relationship on full display. Charlie shuts down often throughout “May December,” and constantly avoids any interactions with Gracie at all costs. You can tell that he has grown extremely resentful of her controlling nature and can’t wait to get out. Mary is perhaps the most naive, only really forced to confront things when Elizabeth visits her drama class as a guest speaker and all but says out loud she things her mother in a bad person. But we also get more glimpses of Gracie’s manipulative behavior when she’s shopping for a graduation dress. It’s probably one of my favorite scenes in “May December,” and puts the whole dynamic on display and makes you dislike Gracie even more than you already do from the moment you meet her. It’s so good, uncomfortable and unsettling, but you can see the craft and empathy Haynes and Burch take with these characters and they never feel exploited or used for any kind of audience emotional manipulation. They smartly leave that all for Gracie to do, and instead highlight the wedge she has with them and the connection they have with their father.
“This is just what grown ups do…”
Perhaps the most divisive role and performance in “May December” Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth is probably the most ambiguous to start. Some have argued that her character is the least interesting of the three leads, that the examination of method acting and the process of acting and the delusions of grandeur all satirized aren’t as compelling as the taboo relationship. Film twitter has gone as far as to say Portman isn’t even a good actress, she’s only good at playing bad ones. That last one is confounding, and I’m sure there’s a whole other debate that can be had in defense of her work that we won’t get into here. I would also argue that Elizabeth is actually one of the most interesting characters in “May December,” one who’s initial ambiguity is rewarded with a little patience as her layers peel back, and she is the catalyst for the events that start to slowly breakdown the facade that Gracie has created. Elizabeth’s true intentions aren’t revealed right away, even painting her as a protagonist who is genuinely seeking the truth. But through Portman’s charming and reserved performance, we begin to see that she has plenty of ulterior motives that have lead her to enter these people’s lives.
She becomes an adversary for Gracie, and “May December” slowly becomes two manipulative women in a power struggle for dominance. Elizabeth’s true intentions also center around Joe and taking advantage of him and his feelings, as well as purposefully ruffling feathers within the family to get to the things that she believes will get her closer to her goals of becoming Gracie. Portman is incredible at mirroring Moore’s movements and posture, slowly adopting small mannerisms and hand gestures that aren’t obvious but constantly present. The longer her and Gracie interact the more apparent it becomes that they are both trying to out maneuver each other regardless of the people they hurt. Portman is at the top of her game here, armed with one of the most devastating lines in “May December,” as well as one of the best single shot monologues of the year. Portman uses all of her charm and charisma to feed into Elizabeth’s skewed version of herself, and nails the satirized version of method acting and the ridiculous lengths performers go for projects that don’t really have a worthy payoff.
Portman’s performance gets better on a rewatch, with her true colors shining a bit brighter once the reveals of her character are discovered. You start to realize that she knows exactly what she’s doing and is only matching the naivety of people’s perceptions of her to get what she wants. She is just as selfish and slef absorbed as Gracie, and we pick up on that much more quickly upon a rewatch. Without Elizabeth and Portman’s performance, “May December” doesn’t really happen. I don’t want to spoil the outcomes, but it is her very presence that disrupts the fantasy world Gracie works so hard to maintain. Portman is having a blast in “May December,” and it may be one of her best performances in years. She’s bringing so much complexity to Elizabeth and, regardless of your real life criticisms of her performance, taps into the bad TV actress who thinks she’s a great one beautifully and more than captures that heightened camp and melodrama required to bring Elizabeth to life.
“I don’t think we have enough hot dogs…”
Julianne Moore reuniting with Haynes is a match made in heaven, with “May December” being another meaty, emotional rollercoaster role for Moore to sink her teeth into. And boy oh boy, is Moore EATING here. Moore chews through scenery in her portraying of Gracie, imbuing the character with some many elaborate quirks and passive aggressive attitudes that you immediately dislike her and that feeling only grows the more layers we peel back. Gracie is a complex character, not the kind that has a side we should be on but someone who forcibly refuses to reconcile with the past or her own actions. We are always left with a sense of “does she know…she knows she’s wrong, right? What she did was wrong and vile and she knows right?” Moore is so good at this tricky balance, continuously covering her tracks to make sure that the perception she wants people to have of her is maintained while also sneaking in some biting remarks that reveal that she does in fact know.
It’s this kind of layering in “May December” that only someone like Moore can pull off. Her Gracie is always scheming, always manipulating, always finding ways to absolve herself of wrongdoing, even adding a lisp that comes and goes as a way of disarming those she’s engaging with. The over the top campiness of her performance is quickly seen as a defense mechanism, a way for her to avoid ever confronting the horrible things she’s done to have the fantasy life she works so hard to keep. Moore beautifully makes Gracie’s actions feel as grotesque and uncomfortable as possible, and Haynes and Burch are smart enough to make sure that she IS the villain without redemption. Just because the truth is never spelled out for us and Moore never puts all of her cards on the table, “May December” has no intention of drumming up any empathy for Gracie. She is diabolical and a monster with a smile, and everything she does is calculated and unforgiving in a way only a true monster could.
Gracie is a complicated person but never a good one, and Moore not only understands this tight rope but walks it with incredible expertise. She is so funny even if we continually grow in our disdain for her, and “May December” uses its over the top humor to ease us into the more emotional beats. Again, it is smart enough to never undercut its emotional core, and requires someone as good as Moore to pull that off. There is never a point where we empathize or sympathize with Gracie, and Moore seems to know that everything she does from the lisp to her outbursts to her desperate attempts at controlling perception all have malicious intent behind them. Gracie is a predator through and through, and “May December” makes her nasty without needing to display or relive the trauma she’s caused in so many lives. Moore is good enough to show teeth through her wicked smile and purposeful naivety, and watching her fight for power with Elizabeth is engrossing.
“I can’t tell if we’re connecting or if I’m creating a bad memory for you right now…”
Finally, we get to Charles Melton, the most emotionally devastating and quiet performances of the year. “May December” pits two veteran women against each other and gives them plenty to sink their teeth into, but it’s Melton who’s given the most internal material that shines brightest. Who could’ve guessed that the hot kid from the CW would have this much resonance and talent? Melton is simply incredible as Joe, perfectly displaying a child in a grown man’s body and someone who has been so controlled by his abuser he doesn’t even really understand that he has been abused his whole life. He is quiet and reserved, who’s every word and action hangs on the permission and deep rooted manipulation of Gracie. Melton heartbreakingly captures a stunted man, one who’s childhood was robbed from him and one who has been thrust into adulthood and parenting long before he was ever emotionally capable of either. Make no mistake, “May December” is acutely aware of how uncomfortable the material is, and makes it abundantly clear who the real villain and victim are. Melton’s Joe is a wounded, broken shell of a man, and his performance may not be as big and bold as his counterparts, but is just as layered and more poignant.
Melton more than holds his own against Portman and Moore, which is saying a lot considering how much “May December” gives them to do. But every moment Melton has works to shatter your heart into a million pieces, and when Joe’s own realizations and emotions come to the surface, it is absolutely soul crushing. Melton is really doing something special here, and everything you’ve heard about his performance is to be believed. “May December” rests all of its emotional weight on his shoulders, so while Moore and Portman and even some of the minor characters all get to galavant around with over the top campiness, Melton is tasked with being the most ground and tragic throughout. He nails it, and even though he’s the most understated he packs the biggest punches. By the end, I was completely swept up in his performance, and there were at least two moments where he brought me to tears. Joe is preyed upon throughout the entirety of “May December,” and Melton makes sure you feel for him and want nothing more for him to be free.
The acting categories are stacked this year, so I don’t see Portman or Moore getting into the nomination lists despite them both giving some of their best performances. If anyone has a shot for their work in “May December,” it’s Charles Melton. He’s got a lot of competition, but what he’s doing here deserves to be recognized and is one of the most quietly resonant and poignant performances of the year. I don’t know that he can win, but I’m joining the Melton nomination train now.
So there you have it, the performances and characters of “May December.” There is honestly so much more I could say about both the film and the characters. There is just so much here and so much to unpack. I can’t recommend “May December” enough, and I would encourage you to overcome your apprehension due to its subject matter and engage with the film.
“May December” is now streaming on Netflix. You can watch the trailer below.