May December explores important societal boundaries. Those moments when making the right choice affects a life’s trajectory in a big way. Broken rules of conduct have implications that last forever. This is the case in the film May December. Director Todd Haynes is known to take on the challenge of dark subject matters, and this is one of his most daring and question laced experience for moviegoers yet. It is a film where wrong choices are made and the outcome is devastating. There is a pervasive tension among those associated with the story. The deep natureof May December reaches a point of being overwhelming in its subject matter, because it confronts the issue of pedophilia wrapped in the experience of portraying the abuser.

The approach of the film delivers a haunting odyssey of disturbing music in frequent fragments of the film. Haynes’ approach gives his audience the feeling that the scenario is not right and the consequences are irreparable. The film’s cinematography feels ominous with colors that seem overly saturated, which heightens the darkness and the storyline’s dark direction. The tragedy of May December is that it is a true story. It is based on the account of Mary Katherine (also referred to as “Mary Kay”) Schmitz Letorneau Fualauu. In the mid 1990’s, she sexually assaulted a coworker that was age twelve. The most disturbing part of this story is that they stayed together, built a family and have lived with the controversy. It sparked all kinds of negative attention and although names have been changed, the narrative follows true events.

The film begins with an actress named Elizabeth (played by Natalie Portman). She is set to play the role of Gracie (played by Julianne Moore), who assaulted her young coworker. She spends time with Gracie and her husband Joe (played by Charles Melton) who is the young man that Gracie seduced. They are married with kids and have lived with a bizarre and disturbing dynamic for many years. Elizabeth tries to get insight into how the events came about for Gracie and Joe and their relationship. She tries to immerse herself in their current and past lives to help feed into her upcoming role. She learns a lot about Gracie and Joe and the details of their affair. She also learns about who it impacted, and how they are perceived. However, her immersion into the uncharted territory of their relationship (based on sexual assault) is where the waters are tested for Elizabeth.

The film becomes eerie as it continues in the direction of Elizabeth finding the harsh truth. Her exploration of their livesbegins to create tension between Joe and Gracie. Joe starts to realize that he was forced into this relationship he has with Gracie. Gracie starts to realize that her fake happiness only creates more inner turmoil. It is not pleasant to watch. Elizabeth also begins to realize that there is more to the story that can only be damaging for everyone involved. The fact that love and acceptance is forced upon the nature of a negative situation is the crux of May December.

The film becomes eerie as it continues in the direction of Elizabeth finding the harsh truth. Her exploration of their livesbegins to create tension between Joe and Gracie. Joe starts to realize that he was forced into this relationship he has with Gracie. Gracie starts to realize that her fake happiness only creates more inner turmoil. It is not pleasant to watch. Elizabeth also begins to realize that there is more to the story that can only be damaging for everyone involved. The fact that love and acceptance is forced upon the nature of a negative situation is the crux of May December.