May December Ending Explained: What Grown-Ups Do
This article contains major spoilers for "May December."
As far back as the Middle Ages, springtime months were frequently depicted in literature as young women, while the later, winter months as old men. The great Geoffrey Chaucer even included a couple in "The Canterbury Tales" named Miss May and Mr. January who were depicted as a young woman and a graying old man. This was written before the Gregorian calendar was accepted which established December as the last month of the year, so updated versions often change his name to "Mr. December." And thus, the expression "May December" was born, a shorthand expression to indicate a large age gap between romantic couples. This is the source of the title of Todd Haynes' latest film, "May December," a delicious melodrama about humanity and boundaries inspired by the real-life scandal and subsequent marriage of 34-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau.
Now available to stream on Netflix, "May December" is the gripping, darkly comedic tale of Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), an actor preparing to portray Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore), a woman who made headlines (and did jail time) for starting a sexual relationship with her husband Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) when she was in her mid-30s and he was only 12. Make no mistake — this is a relationship birthed out of statutory rape, but Elizabeth comes to spend time with the family and their community during the week of Gracie and Joe's youngest children's high school graduation to learn about their lives and figure out how best Elizabeth can play this woman with honesty.
Waffling between uncomfortable humor that borders on skin-crawling and moral conundrums that no therapist in the world can provide an answer to, "May December" is one of the best films of 2023, and one we'll undoubtedly be talking about for years to come.
An actor prepares
As an actor, Elizabeth Berry is a TV performer looking to transcend to the next level. She's the type of person that Gracie's kids and their high school friends recognize, but not quite at the celebrity status where there are roleplaying stan accounts in her honor. Elizabeth knows that taking on a role like Gracie Atherton-Yoo could do wonders for her career because we all know how the Academy adores biopics of messy, complicated, borderline-destructive women. She checks into her swanky hotel in Savannah, Georgia, lamenting into her Bluetooth that the accommodations aren't exactly as anticipated. Across town, Gracie is running around her house trying to prepare for Elizabeth's arrival and a summer party with the neighborhood. The home is buzzing with frantic energy, Gracie opens her refrigerator and seems stunned by what she sees. The music swells, and the camera pushes in with great dramatics, only for Gracie to exclaim, "I don't think we have enough hot dogs."
This sets the tone for "May December," which is just as important if not more so than the story at hand. We know Elizabeth is here as part of her preparation as an actress, but how does this differ from that of Gracie? How is preparing for a role on screen any different than preparing for the role of a loving wife, dutiful mother, and gracious hostess? "May December" is a meticulously crafted melodrama from a well-respected filmmaker, but carries the same spiritual energy as the wonderfully exploitative TV movies typically distributed by the Lifetime channel. Elizabeth is even shown watching a low-budget made-for-TV movie already made of Gracie and Joe's story for further inspiration to truly hammer home what it is this film is trying to do. This tightrope walk is necessary given the harrowing realities of the story. In another director's hands, "May December" runs the risk of becoming harmful schlock, but with Haynes' keen eye and Samy Burch's sharp script, it's a masterpiece.
The first test
When Elizabeth arrives at the Atherton-Yoo home, she comes carrying a package she found on the doorstep. Without a moment's investigation, Gracie and Joe dispose of the box after correctly assuming it's filled with feces — a common occurrence that the couple has become desensitized to receiving. It's well-known news that Gracie met, and subsequently groomed and started a relationship with Joe while the two worked together at a pet shop. Gracie used the back room of the shop to have sex with the boy, which is where she was caught and rightfully sent to prison. She even gave birth to a daughter, Honor, while behind bars. After being let out, Gracie and Joe married and had twins Mary and Charlie who will soon graduate high school. Joe is about to be an empty-nester parent at the age of 36, the same age as Gracie when the two first met.
"May December" refuses to delve into the salacious details of the Atherton-Yoo affair or attempt to justify or even explain Gracie's actions, and everyone in the film is an unreliable narrator. The only character with any semblance of psychological purity is Joe, but he's noticeably psychologically stunted despite his age. Is his assessment of the situation accurate? Can his perception even be accurate given the obvious grooming he's endured? "May December" will not give any clear-cut answers, which provides the greatest discomfort of all. Elizabeth tries to make sense of their marriage, and her intrusion into their lives forces a new perspective for Joe, too. After all, Elizabeth is also nearly the same age as him. With a much older wife and much younger children, it's obvious that Joe hasn't really interacted much with people his own age. Elizabeth is a look at how his life could have turned out differently.
When acting is an art
Elizabeth seems like a typical actor preparing for a role, but the more she observes Gracie, the more she changes. She's introduced as the audience's POV — an outsider to this deeply upsetting situation. She takes meticulous notes about Gracie's family and friends, her response to the media, and even the specificities of what makeup brands she prefers. As days go by, Elizabeth stops serving as our window into this world and instead pulls us through the looking glass herself. She volunteers to make an appearance at the high school drama club to answer questions but when a student asks an inappropriate question about simulated sex, the cracks begin to show. Elizabeth doesn't make a responsible decision as an adult should be by redirecting the question to something suitable for an adult/teenage conversation. She gives him the answer, and the class grinds to a halt. Is this how Elizabeth would normally answer this question or has her perspective become warped after throwing herself into researching the role of a woman who continues to claim that she was seduced by a 12-year-old boy?
Gradually, Elizabeth begins to mimic Gracie's mannerisms, slight lisp, posture, hand positioning, and even fashion. It starts to resemble one of those dangerous "method acting" stories that often make headlines, but with the unsettling layer that she's trying to transform into a real woman who will spend the rest of her life as a registered sex offender. This is not a character, this is a human being. This is not a movie, this is her life. And even still, Elizabeth crosses a number of ethical lines to "get into character," including simulating a sexual experience next to the fish tanks at the pet shop where Gracie groomed Joe, talking to Gracie's ex-husband and children (the ones she left for Joe) behind her back, and even taking advantage of Joe's budding interest in the possibility of a life that doesn't include Gracie.
Action
Elizabeth learns that Gracie wrote a secret letter to Joe before she was caught, and he kept it after all these years. She views the letter as the ultimate key to unlocking the "character" of Gracie and begins seducing Joe in an attempt to get it. She eventually has sex with him in her hotel room, which is a casual, manipulative ploy on her part, and a life-shattering moment of confusion for Joe. Elizabeth had sex with him and it meant nothing to her, but Joe is a changed man. He's tasted life outside of Gracie and is questioning for the very first time whether or not this is what he really wants. He confronts Gracie later that night, wondering why the pair never actually talk about what happened, and she completely loses it. She's crying, shaking, wailing — but so is Joe. Just when it seems like the two are going to have an explosive separation, Gracie pulls it all together, reminding him that it's the night before their children's graduation.
She's missing the next morning, gone out hunting as a bit of therapy, while Joe makes breakfast for his children. They're 18. They're graduating. They're the same age that he was when Gracie gave birth to them. That afternoon, Gracie sits proudly in the stands at the high school football stadium as her children walk across the stage, while Joe watches from the side of the field, overwhelmed with emotion as he reckons with the cumulation of his life as reflected by his children. Following the ceremony, she and Elizabeth say their goodbyes, and the film ends with Elizabeth on set and performing as Gracie — feeling the scene feel "real" with each take. The scene in question? The first time Gracie seduced Joe in the back room at the pet store. It's up to the audience as a critic whether or not Elizabeth has actually found the truth of Gracie, or if she's just become a caricature of the woman like all the others that played her in made-for-TV films before.
Imagination
Elizabeth and Gracie are the primary leads of "May December," but this is ultimately Joe's story. Charles Melton's controlled performance is hypnotic, possessing the energy of a child playing dress-up in their father's clothes, but within the body of a thirtysomething. He's an X-ray technician by day, but his true passion is raising butterflies to help repopulate the area. Gracie orders him around like a child, but her commands are no different than any "nagging wife" sitcom caricature shown on TV. Of course, her behaviors are never read that way, as we're constantly reminded that her husband has spent more of his life involved with her than not.
Despite his commanding frame, Joe is constantly shrinking himself down both physically and vocally. He's a father figure to his children in the sense that he's older than they are and provided the DNA to give them life, but they're often the ones teaching him about life. In arguably the film's most powerful scene, Joe smokes weed for the first time on the roof with his son, and has an emotional breakdown where he says, "I can't tell if we're connecting or if I'm creating a bad memory for you." It's here that we realize that Joe has never really had a say in his choices in life. Gracie has been making his decisions for nearly a quarter of a century. He's forgotten what it's like to imagine.
"Why can't we talk about it if we're really as in love as we say we are?" he asks as he interrogates Gracie. Joe's life is one that has been imagined up for him, one he signed onto without being truly able to understand what it all means ... or does he? At the end of the film, it's unclear what the future holds for Joe and Gracie but one thing is for certain — Joe is finally taking control of what he imagines for his life.
Adaptación
While "May December" takes obvious creative liberties with the real story of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, it's hard not to see the end of the film as the beginning of what happened to the couple that inspired the story. Letourneau was sentenced to over seven years in prison, and became pregnant, twice, with Fualaau's children before he was 15. When she was finally released, Fualaau was an adult and petitioned the courts to drop the required restraining order. The two married in 2005, but Letourneau was still required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. The two remained (seemingly) happily married until 2017 when Fualaau filed for a separation. But for the next two years, they were still living together and often spotted out in public until he pursued the separation again in 2019.
In 2020, Mary Kay Letourneau passed away from colorectal cancer at the age of 58. Fualaau and their children were at her side. A source close to People magazine stated that after the separation, he started to see their relationship for what it really was, explaining he was "Just thinking about how they met, and how that affected how they interacted as adults. He was never really a full-fledged partner; he was always secondary. He sees that now." The source continued, "It shouldn't surprise anyone, but he's feeling that for the first time, he's being like a real grown adult. That feels good for him."
It's doubtful that there will be a sequel to "May December" but the ending of the film certainly feels like the start for Joe of the life Fualaau was finally able to have for himself.
"May December" is now streaming on Netflix.