A traditional barbecue at the Atherton House is chaotic even in quiet times, as numerous children scurry restlessly between parents busy cooking, striving to do another stupid thing. But this time the holiday intends to break all records, as a big Hollywood actress, whose presence hardly inspires her household, will drop in.
To shoot a new biopic, Elizabeth wants to meet in person a woman whose youth she will have to bring to life on screen. The heroine of the picture should be Gracie, the autocratic matriarch of the Atherton House, who rules a motley crowd with a caring hand. But the public has long been trying to forget the past that interests the public, which will soon be revealed to millions.
By the beginning of the film, the older child of an elderly woman and her 36-year-old husband Joe was 23 years old. It's easy to guess that this age difference hides a whole scandal. Two decades ago, Gracie dutifully accepted the court's verdict and spent her sentence in prison for molestation, simultaneously assuring others that it was a love affair. Now the couple is raising their children in absolute harmony and harmony.
The story of Gracie and Joe in the movie “May December” is inspired by real events that took place in the 1990s. But it focuses not so much on facts from life as on the dynamics of relations between the actress and her prototype, which makes what is happening similar to “Persona” and other works by Ingmar Bergman. The events are about a fictional picture and fictional characters, mixing truth with fiction to such a consistency that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other.
Joe's still young life seems to have entered its final phase. The children are already choosing prom outfits and making plans for the time they will spend away from their parents, but the wife has come to terms with the role of a retired housewife. It seems like now is a good time to look at the past and decide if it was worth it. But 36 years is not a suitable period for senile reflection.
When the family nest threatens to empty for the first time, Joe suddenly finds the strength to make sense of his own youth. And Elizabeth contributes to this, not only digging up the forgotten past, but also imitating Gracie's habits at the very age when she thinks she reciprocated the boy's signals. And past events are rolling in a deafening wave on the defenseless guy.
As a bystander, Elizabeth adds fuel to the fire and keeps an eye on a strange family whose foundations rest on deep trauma. Gracie lies to herself and her husband that he is to blame for the events of 20 years ago and pretends to be a victim of a society that has failed to understand their forbidden love.
To keep herself busy, Gracie works part-time as a local community pastry chef, although few people order sweets from her only out of pity. But even so, one failed order makes the woman hysterical, as if she were the heroine of a dramatic film, offended by the whole world. This is because any crack, even invisible to the eye, can destroy an ideal family life.
The Atherton House is built on lies, and everyone in it carefully supports the ostentatious well-being that Gracie has carefully created. The husband, as if hypnotized, repeats the mantra about consent and reciprocity, although the roots of doubt are rapidly growing in his soul. But the further the actress goes into family research, the more problems she finds.
Gracie's children from their first marriage do not want to have anything in common with her, as does her ex-husband, who has long denied the scandalous union. Residents of the town regularly send parcels with excrement to the woman, expressing indignation at the uninvited neighborhood. But all this is successfully hidden behind a pretty facade that hides rotten supports.
And Elizabeth arrives in this house, woven solely from lies, with the intention of bringing Gracie's real story to the screen. But what the actress means to be true is fundamentally different from the views of the woman herself. Therefore, an outside observer joins the local game, supporting the endlessly flowing lies.
Todd Haynes echoes his characters, turning the picture into a kaleidoscope of pretense. “May December” periodically pretends to be either a cheap movie thanks to outdated techniques, or a frightening thriller due to its creepy soundtrack. Events take their time to fire guns, and the ominous atmosphere prevents the characters from living their own drama in peace.
“May December” is a film about filming a film in which characters exist within a fictional universe. Metanarrative deliberately deceives expectations and constructs lies in the same way that characters come up with an idyllic world that hides the obvious truth. The truth is that even the irrefutable truth, when hidden under dozens of layers of falsehood, can sometimes take years to get there.
