May December Movie Review

May December is directed by Todd Hayness, the producers of the film are Natalie Portman She was considered to be a gifted actress of Holly >> Read More... , Will Ferrell John William Ferrell was born on July 16th 1967.   >> Read More... , Christine Vachon, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Jessica Elbaum Jessica Elbaum is a very famous producer and has p >> Read More... , Sophie Mas, and Tyler W. Konney. The music is directed by Marcelo Zarvos, Chris Blauvelt is the cinematographer. The film features Natalie Portman, Charles Melton, Julianne Moore She demonstrated wide range of ability to portray >> Read More... , Piper Curda, Cory Michael Smith, Elizabeth Yu, Jocelyn Shelfo, Zachary Branch, D. W. Moffet, Drew Scheid, Andra Frankle, Hans Obma, Kelvin Han Yee, Lawrence Arancio, Chris Tenzis, Julie Ivey, Hailey Wist, Allie McCulloch, and Charles Green in pivotal roles.

Plot

The story of the film May December revolves around an actress, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), and her research for her upcoming project.

 In 2015, Elizabeth reaches, Savannah, Georgia to meet a lady, Gracie (Julianne Moore), and her husband, Joe (Charles Melton), for her new project. The subject of the film is the Scandal of 1990s, in which Gracie and Joe were caught having sex in the store room of the pet shop they worked in.

This became a Scandal because of their ages, Gracie was 36 and Joe was just 13 at that time. After this incident, Gracie was sent to jail, where she delivers, their first child.

When Elizabeth visits them, she gets to know that it had been 24 years of their marriage, and they were getting ready to attend Graduation day of their children, Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung). Mary and Charlie are twins.

Their first child, who was born when Gracie was in jail, Honor ( Piper Curda) is in college now.

The Graduation day ceremony was obviously going to be awkward for both Gracie and Joe because Gracie ex-husband, Tom (D. W. Moffet), and Gracie’s children were also going to attend the program. Not only this, their daughter Georgia, who was a classmate of Joe at the time of Scandal, she was also going to attend the program. Elizabeth, for her research, goes to meet Gracie and Tom’s lawyer, Morris (Lawrence Aranico).

During the time she spends with Gracie and Joe, she realizes that Joe was made to believe that he loves Gracie. She sees how Gracie treats Joe not like her husband but like her son.

After Graduation day, when Joe and his son Charlie are smoking weed on their terrace, Joe reveals that this is the first time when he is smoking. Joe misses all the things which he had to skip because of his marriage with Gracie.

The rest of the story revolves around the incident that takes during the research period of Elizabeth.

Star performance

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, as Elizabeth and Gracie won hearts. Both of them are Oscar nominees, it is very difficult to find flaws in their performance. The performance was so realistic, that you don’t need dialogues to understand their emotions, the body language says it all.

Charles Melton, surprised everyone. He really stole the show, his acting was cherry on top. He portrayed the character of Joe beautifully. He has balanced the youthfulness and  maturity as a father and husband, very well.

Rest of the actors were not very impressive.

Analysis

The story of May December is all about abuse, denial, and manipulation. The characters of the film are two-dimensional.

The name of the movie reflects its theme, here may stands for youthfulness whereas December stands for old or elder one. In the movie we see a relationship just like the title suggests.

Gracie, a simple lady who loves to bake cakes for his husband and behaves nicely with her children, can be a criminal.

But yes, she is a criminal, actually. She seduced a 13year old boy and raped him. She manipulated him that he loves her and got married to him.

Joe, who looks very happy from outside but is sad and confused deep inside. He actually misses all those things which he skipped because of this marriage. In a conversation with Elizabeth he says “he was too young to take a major decision.”

Elizabeth, an actor, who is looking for a character that can uplift her career and that is why decides to play the character of Gracie. She is always on phone call with someone with a deep and heavy voice, may be the person is the director of the film, it seems that she is in a relationship with the person.

The film is very confusing and requires a deep understanding to understand what actually the movie is trying to reflect.

 The director of the film is Todd Haynes. Even with such an excellent story and sharp writing, the movie is not that impressive and makes you uncomfortable.

Some scenes of the movie scenes are so unreal, like Gracie and Joe living in a big and beautiful house comfortably. This seems unrealistic because Gracie spends her whole day either crying or baking cakes for the orders, and that too orders are from her neighbours only, who give her orders because of sympathy. And, Joe he has nothing to do for the whole day, except grilling hot dogs.

 The cinematographer of the film is Chris Blauvelt. He did his job very well, the film offers rich visuals.

The music and editing department did an excellent job.

What’s there?

• Exciting storyline
• Strong performances by the star cast
• Good BGMs for the characters.

What’s not there?

• Poor direction in the film.

Verdict

The film May December is a combination of comedy and tragedy, but due to a lack of good direction, the film loses its grip.

The storyline of the movie is very solid and is written sharply. You can go and watch this film.