May December is as much a shocking melodrama that explores the cycle of abuse as it is a biting satire about our culture’s obsession with consuming tragedy as entertainment. Director Todd Haynes’ latest film centers around a family reconciling with a high profile criminal case that still haunts them decades later. Julianne Moore stars as Gracie Atherton, a woman who sexually abuses a thirteen year old boy, has his child while in prison, and marries him upon release. Twenty years have passed when we meet Gracie and Joe, played by Charles Melton, and they’ve managed to make a quiet life for themselves out of the public eye. However, their relationship begins to unravel when an ambitious actress, Elizabeth, played by Natalie Portman, dredges up old memories in an effort to learn what makes Gracie tick. Elizabeth is playing Gracie in an upcoming independent film and is hopeful that this role will legitimize her as a “real actress”. The film’s story is heavily inspired by a highly publicized criminal case that dominated the tabloids at the time. In 1997, elementary school teacher, Mary Kay Letourneau was arrested for raping her twelve year old student, Villi Fualaau. Like the story told in May December, Letourneau gave birth to their children while in prison and eventually married him when she was released. The two were together until their divorce in 2019, Letourneau passed away a year later in 2020. 

When we first meet the Atherton family, they are enjoying a late spring barbecue with their friends and neighbors, appearing just like any other family, except they are anxiously awaiting the arrival of actress Elizabeth. When she arrives at their family home, as a kind gesture, Elizabeth brings in a package from their front steps. Gracie quickly discards the delivery, knowing it is a box full of feces and states “We haven’t had one in a while, but it’s just par for the course.” This opening scene perfectly illustrates that despite the Atherton’s best efforts to move on and be normal, they simply cannot escape the trauma that is at the heart of their family. The community surrounding them have gone through great efforts to insulate and enable Gracie. They are protective and cagey when speaking in interviews with Elizabeth, pleading with her to be kind in her portrayal, and they distract Gracie, occupying her time by supporting her freelance baking job. There’s an overwhelming sense of complicity throughout May December, Haynes goes through great lengths to show the audience how the normalization of abuse is a group effort. 

Melton has received high praise for his sensitive and heartbreaking performance, recently winning a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. In May December, Joe is now 36 years old, but still carries himself like an insecure child. Melton’s physicality is diminished, he hangs his head low, and lacks the confidence you would expect from an adult man. Throughout the film, Joe is constantly under Gracie’s thumb, appeasing her during outbursts, and is still so desperate for her approval decades later. It is honest and upsetting and despite the film’s over the top tone, it is never played for laughs. May December is set weeks before his two youngest’s high school graduation. Joe is confronted with the reality that his children have already surpassed him emotionally and that they are about to set off on their own in a way he was not allowed to. This never manifests as resentment, in fact all three of his children care deeply for him and the feeling is mutual. Out of all the pain and abnormality surrounding the circumstances of their family, they still have a deep love for one another. 

Portman’s performance here is remarkable to watch, she is the film’s protagonist and vehicle for the audience to understand who Gracie is. Elizabeth is an actor who has found herself in a career slump, stuck playing a veterinarian in a cheesy procedural television show that people love, but does not mean anything to her. The opportunity to play Gracie in an independent, potentially award worthy, film gives Elizabeth a chance to do something complex and provocative so she takes her research incredibly seriously. The humor in May December comes from poking fun at the absurd idea that an actor is the person best equipped for “understanding” someone’s criminal behavior. In Elizabeth’s search for the truth, she becomes captivated by Gracie’s ability to live without shame or guilt, despite being constantly confronted with the fact that Gracie is not as complex as she wants to believe. As Elizabeth’s fiance so bluntly puts it to her, “Yeah, that’s probably a personality disorder.” By the end of the film, Elizabeth has manipulated and exploited the Athertons for professional gain and in her desperate pursuit of the truth, she is no closer to understanding why Gracie raped a thirteen year old. May December asks the audience to question our own voyeuristic need to understand what makes bad people do bad things.

May December is hyper critical of our current culture’s interest in true crime narratives, especially when consumed as entertainment. Our need to categorize good and evil people is exposed as having more to do with recognizing ourselves as “good” rather than understanding what makes someone else evil. The sensationalized media narrative surrounding both the real and fictionalized tellings of Letourneau’s story were more about feeding our appetite for salacious news than admonishing and punishing Letourneau for her actions. In the media’s wake, both Joe and Fualaau were forced to fend for themselves as the news cycle moved on. It is an indictment of how we treat victims, especially children and people of color, and trivialize their suffering for entertainment. With May December, Haynes reminds us how we are all complicit in our culture of abuse and that our consumption of tragedy contributes to its normalization, failing victims in the process.