Todd Haynes’ POISON, based on the relationship of notorious murderers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, is one of the classics of the period of “New Gay Cinema.” Since that time, Haynes has made a series of films focusing on female characters, that look back to the style of studio-era “women’s pictures,” particularly the glossy films Universal International produced in the 1950s and 1960s. Major actresses like Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett have been his leading ladies. 

Haynes’ films place women outside of their bourgeoise society, In Haynes’s FAR FROM HEAVEN, Julianne Moore plays Carol, an affluent, suburban 1950s housewives who gets caught up in the changes that are beginning to shake her complacent society. She discovers that her husband is gay, and she falls in love with Raymond, their Black gardener. Her relationship with Raymond ruins his business and her social standing. In CAROL, based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel, THE PRICE OF SALT, the leading character is another affluent suburban housewife who happens to love women, particularly a young department store salesgirl. CAROL is also set in the 1950s.

MAY DECEMBER (now streaming on Netflix) is based on a famous incident that was fodder for the tabloid press and trash television. Thirty-four year old Mary Kay Letourneau, married and a mother of four, was caught having sex in a parked car with her twelve-year old middle-school student, Vili Fublaau. To make matters more scandalous, she was pregnant with Vili’s child. Letourneau was arrested for statutory rape.  After violating her parole by having sex again with Vili and becoming pregnant again, Letourneau was sent back to jail. When she finished her sentence, she and Vili married. They were divorced after fifteen years of marriage. 

Haynes’ film (screenplay by Samy Burch) does not show the infamous affair between the teacher and her young student. Instead it focuses on the couple twenty-three years later. Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), lives in a lovely house in Savannah (paid for in part by tabloid and television interviews), with her husband Joe Yoo, who is now at thirty-six the age Gracie was when she first had her affair with him in the back room of a pet store where they were both part-time workers. Joe (Charles Melton), is a radiology technician at a local hospital. Daughter Honor, born in prison, is now in college; twins Charles and Mary are about to graduate from high school. Joe is painfully aware that the imminent empty next will make changes in their relationship.

Gracie is a complicated character, to put it mildly. “I am naïve,” she says, “I have always been naïve. I think it’s a gift.” Later she asserts that she is “secure.” Her version of what happened between her and Joe is that he seduced her when he was thirteen and she was thirty-six. What we see of their dynamic suggests otherwise. In their first interaction, Gracie chides Joe for having a second beer. Later, in bed, she complains that he “smells of smoke” when he gets in bed after cooking on a gas grill. Gracie treats Joe like a child, but there are moments when he has to be parent to her inner child. Gracie is proud of being “secure” and in control, but she has moments of crisis that Joe has to deal with. We see Joe come into the house and hear Gracie crying upstairs. He curses quietly before he goes upstairs to calm her down. Joe adores his children who aren’t too fond of Gracie who seems indifferent to their son and cruel to their daughters (she gave one a bathroom scale as a high school graduation present). Her famous past has also had a negative effect on the children of her first marriage, particularly Georgie (Cory Michael Smith), who was a schoolmate of Joe’s when the affair took place.  

Enter another catalyst to crisis, actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman). Best known for her work in a sexy television series, Elizabeth is in town to do research for a film in which she will play a fictionalized version of Gracie. Elizabeth admits to a group of high school students that she sometimes loses track of the “lines” she is not supposed to cross. Elizabeth’s “research” is sometimes downright creepy. She has Gracie teach her how to bake cakes (Gracie’s side job), and to apply makeup. When she sees the area of the storeroom of the pet shop where Gracie had sex with young Joe, she imagines herself having sex with Joe. Later, she seduces Joe into sex with her. In the most bizarre scene, we see Elizabeth tearfully recites a letter Gracie sent Joe during their affair. “I’ve lost track of what the line is”[that she shouldn’t cross in her behavior with a student]. “Whoever draws these lines?” Is Elizabeth in tears because she too has crossed the line?

Elizabeth’s entry into the Atherton-Yoo family affects everyone. The children do not want more humiliating publicity. Gracie tries to keep on the mask of ideal wife and mother, but the cracks are constantly revealed. Elizabeth’s visit and the impending empty nest and forthcoming film make Joe see that he and Gracie have avoided facing the truth of their past. When after sex, Elizabeth calls what Joe has lived through “a story,” Joe screams, “This isn’t a story. This is my fucking life.” Deep down, Joe seems to know that much of his relationship to Gracie has been a performance: “If we really are as in love as we say we are, shouldn’t we be able to talk about this.” Focusing on the performance made it possible to avoid the big questions that have now bubbled to the surface: “What if I wasn’t ready to make these decisions? What if I was too young?” Gracie is fixed in her rationalizations of her past behavior: “I don’t care how old you were. You were in charge.”

There have been signs that Joe wants to escape. He texts back and forth with a woman who, like him, raises monarch butterflies as a hobby. At one point he suggests that they get together, but she reminds him that he is married. At his twins’ high school graduation, he is not with Gracie, but standing on the other side of a fence. Is he going to move on with his life? The symbolism of the monarch butterfly emerging may lack subtlety, but it is as fitting metaphor for Joe’s development.

Charles Melton’s performance as Joe is one of the great strengths of this fine film. He captures the sense that Joe has never fully grown up but is still a thirteen-year-old boy shouldering adult responsibilities. He seems lonely and sad. In his most revealing scene, he is on the roof with his son and smokes pot for the first time in his life. Rather than lead to euphoria, the pot leads to profound sadness as he tearfully tells his son that bad things can happen to kids. When his son says, “You don’t have to worry about me, Joe responds, “That’s all I do.” Of course, he would be worried about the dangers for a teenage boy. He lived a terrible adolescence as the co-star of a sensational sex scandal. One critic compared to Melton’s performance to that of Marlon Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT. I think it’s far more subtle and nuanced. Melton should get an Oscar for this performance.

What a meaty role Julianne Moore has, and she makes the most of the opportunities it gives her as an actress. Gracie is, first and foremost, an actress, trying to maintain an idealized version of herself. The mask slips, however, and we see why her children can refer to her as a monster. Hayne’s brilliant direction underscores the film’s emphasis on performance. In one scene, Elizabeth has accompanied Gracie and daughter Mary to buy a dress for Mary’s graduation. As Mary tries on dresses, we see Gracie in the center of the screen talking to Elizabeth and Mary and, on the right, Gracie reflected in a mirror. Two Gracies underscoring the difference between the manufactured image and the reality. Gracie blithely tells her daughter who has tried on a sleeveless dress, that she admires Mary’s status as a modern woman who is not ashamed to show her fat arms. Mary, used to such humiliation from her mother, cheerfully says that she’ll try another dress. Another performance. 

In the film’s final moments, we see the shooting of the scene when the film versions of Gracie and Joe are about to have sex. Elizabeth fondles a snake (Eve?), while seductively telling a conventionally handsome and obviously older than thirteen Joe that the snake isn’t dangerous. It’s a funny parody of the much more emotionally complex moment that Gracie and Joe experienced. We’re seeing Elizabeth projecting herself onto Gracie. The real story that is the substance of the film, is much more complex and disturbing. MAY DECEMBER is one of the best films of last year.