Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore play actor and subject in May December, the enjoyable tale of a fraught creative collaboration that finally promises more than it delivers. Director Todd Haynes adores playing with the pieces of traditional Hollywood cinema, like a kid with a train set, or his mum’s makeup box, to the point where the artifice becomes the main thrust of his story. If May December is guilty of making hysterical mountains out of molehills, then, this is partly the point. That’s Hollywood movies for you. They turn every crisis into a pre-packaged drama.
Moore co-stars as Gracie Atherton, a 60-year-old southern belle with a sun-bright smile and a brittle coating of frost. More than two decades ago she fell in love with Joe Yoo, a 13-year-old schoolboy, sparking a nationwide scandal that people remember to this day. Portman is Elizabeth, the actor set to play Gracie in the big-budget film of her life. “You look taller on television, but we’re basically the same size,” Gracie marvels, welcoming the star to her seafront Georgia home. Elizabeth agrees: “We’re basically the same.”
