May December
Natalie Portman plays Julianne Moore in Todd Haynes’ mesmerising melodrama exploring different facets of celebrity.
Persona non grata: Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore
Natalie Portman has only played two real-life characters on screen, and both of them are dead. Here, she is playing a fictitious actress who is preparing to play a real-life character in a new screen biography. The actress she is playing, Elizabeth Berry, takes her craft extremely seriously and has asked the woman she is about to portray on screen, Gracie Atherton-Yoo, if she can spend some time with her, to get to know her. Perhaps surprisingly, Elizabeth is invited into the close-knit community of Gracie’s home in Savannah, Georgia, like a special guest. And so we have a celebrity actress (much like Natalie Portman herself) in a small town, asking everybody questions about Gracie, who is portrayed here by Julianne Moore. Elizabeth is now 36, the age that Gracie was when what she did made her famous, famous enough to have a film made about her…
For many a celebrity actress, this set-up must seem uncomfortably familiar. How can you portray somebody truthfully when they are still very much alive, through the lens of a third-party screenwriter? The dynamic here is tantalising, particularly as we don’t know why Gracie is famous – at least, not at first – although a whiff of notoriety hangs as oppressively around town as the Spanish moss on the surrounding trees. But Gracie seems happy to share her secrets with Elizabeth, so that the latter can represent her side of the story (whatever that may be). Gradually, imperceptibly, the director Todd Haynes peels away the layers of his protagonists, revealing less than favourable aspects of them with a single shard of dialogue, a comment dropped like a wine glass at a party, never to be repaired. Elizabeth is caught lying, Gracie displays a barbed passive aggression. Meanwhile, with a professional commitment to her craft, Elizabeth is already becoming Gracie.
This is Todd Haynes’ ninth film as director and his fifth collaboration with Julianne Moore, his cinematic muse. Their artistic shorthand is apparent from the start and the film serves as a wonderful showcase for both lead actresses, although Portman is the more surprising here. Gracie is actually inspired by a real-life character (another irony), namely Mary Kay Letourneau, who went to prison for her crime. But everything would seem to be fine and dandy in this corner of Savannah, until the cracks start, infinitesimally, to appear. There are children from a previous marriage and the man in the kitchen who is Elizabeth’s age but who would seem to have his own children by Gracie. And as the subject and the outsider begin to trust each other, Gracie readily admits, “I am naïve. I always have been.”
Frequently framing his characters off-centre, Haynes brings a sense of unease to the proceedings, aided by the melodramatic chords of Michel Legrand’s score to The Go-Between (1970), a film set in two time frames. Thankfully, Haynes refrains from dishing out the flashbacks here, relying instead on the power of the spoken word, and the appropriate reaction to it. However, as gripping as the movie is – ‘intriguing’ might be a better word – it never really ignites, a problem with many of Todd Haynes’ films, which too often become embalmed by his self-conscious direction. Yet he really does know how to draw out a great performance from an actress (cf. Cate Blanchett in Carol). Interestingly, in spite of the Oscar buzz that Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are attracting, their male co-star Charles Melton – as the Korean-American in the kitchen – has already won three major awards as best supporting actor.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, Cory Michael Smith, Elizabeth Yu, Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, D.W. Moffett, Lawrence Arancio, Kelvin Han Yee, Mike Lopez, Charles Green, Mikenzie Taylor, Christopher Nguyen.
Dir Todd Haynes, Pro Natalie Portman, Sophie Mas, Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, Grant S. Johnson, Tyler W. Konney, Jessica Elbaum and Will Ferrell, Screenplay Samy Burch, Ph Christopher Blauvelt, Pro Des Sam Lisenco, Ed Affonso Gonçalves, Music Marcelo Zarvos and Michel Legrand, Costumes April Napier, Sound Leslie Shatz.
MountainA/Gloria Sanchez Productions/Killer Films/Taylor & Dodge/Project Infinity- StudioCanal/Sky Cinema (UK), Netflix (US).
117 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 1 December 2023. Cert. 15.
Affiliate partner