May December (MA)
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore
Review by: Julian Wright
Do you ever really know a person? Can you ever really pinpoint their motivations? They are intriguing questions that Todd Haynes explores with delicious flourishes of melodrama.
Decades after their relationship became tabloid fodder, Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe’s (Charles Melton) story is about to be made into an independent film starring Hollywood actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) as Gracie.
The couple, still living in a small town with teenage children, let Elizabeth into their home so she can prepare for her role, and get to know what makes Gracie tick.
What has drawn Elizabeth to this meaty role of a lifetime? Gracie is 23 years older than Joe, and spent time in jail after their relationship developed when he was 13 years old.
But it turns out that Gracie is not an easy person to grasp.
A motherly Martha Stewart on the outside, emotional breakdowns behind closed doors and quietly calculating and manipulative at other times. Or is she just naive?
Who knows? And we might never find out.
Portman is sublime in her role of the nosey perfectionist, seeking the psychological key that unlocks the complicated and enigmatic Gracie.
Her subtle mimicry of Moore is only part of her multi-layered performance, that also weaves in shades of seduction.
Moore is Portman’s equal as she feasts on her role, playing both sides of this complicated character, shifting uneasily from child-like to cold and back gain.
But this is not simply a two-woman show, with Melton coming in leaps and bounds from his Riverdale days as the doting younger husband who begins to realise that is childhood was taken from him.
Exploring this illegal relationship from the point of view of an actress preparing for her role, as opposed to a straight-forward dramatisation, gives us the fascinating addition of the unusual relationship and dynamic between an artist and her subject.
We also get insight into an actress’ process and the privileged access they are allowed; it is at times even voyeuristic.
This is such a heavy subject matter that it could easily have been weighed down in dramatics and tears, but Haynes provides dark humour as levity (if you are on that wavelength) and moments of soap-opera theatrics. Some of the musical cues are right out of Days of our Lives.
Haynes treads a delicate line and does it with such confidence and skill, that once it ends, you almost want to start it from the beginning immediately. If only you weren’t so caught up mulling over what he has just posited.
May December screens as part of Perth Festival Lotterywest films from December 26 – 31.
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