Todd Haynes ('Mildred Pierce', 'Enlightened', 'Dark Waters') again explores forms of human relationships and once again does so through female characters in his new work 'May December'.

The central heroines of 'May December' — actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) and former teacher Gracie (Julianne Moore) meet so that a film about the high-profile story of unequal love between 36-year-old Gracie and 13-year-old Joe can be released. The woman served time in prison, was released, and then married her young lover. Outwardly, it is simply an ideal, sweet family from a picture, full of love and care for each other. And all this against the backdrop of the wonderful landscapes of Savannah, which also resemble biblical paintings of paradise.

Maybe it was like that before Elizabeth appeared, who is also 36, and at the moment she is the same age as Joe (Charles Melton). The actress enters the family and immerses herself in its world in order to convey on screen the feelings and true motive of her heroine, which still needs to be unraveled. And this, as usual, is extremely difficult to do.

Now Gracie is a happy mother of a large family, who enjoys running the household and baking pies for sale to neighbors. She has a simple, unpretentious everyday makeup and the same life, which she seems to share with Elizabeth, but makes it clear that she will give exactly as much as she considers necessary and exactly what she would like to show and see on screen. Gracie is also a kind of big star, because her photos never left the covers of glossy magazines, tabloids were literally full of details of her case and personal life. She invisibly exudes strength and confidence in her rightness, and her dominance in the family is emphasized by an unusual hobby for a woman: hunting. Being a wife, mother, and homemaker, Gracie does not mind shooting a quail and roasting it for a family dinner.

Against the backdrop of his wife, Joe looks calm and even passive. He goes to work, and at home most often watches TV with beer, and his only passion has become raising butterflies, whose population is rapidly declining. Joe rarely expresses his opinion, and within the family he looks like a calm, supportive father not only for his children, but also for Gracie, who may suddenly burst into bitter tears over a trifle.

Butterflies and hunting look beautiful and poetic in their opposition of the beginning of beauty and the finiteness of the living by someone else's will. The author may not give a direct assessment of the unequal marriage, but through the metaphor of the characters' hobbies, he still shows that someone would be glad to spread their wings, but due to circumstances and psychological trauma, they could not do it. And someone turned out to be a cunning hunter who, perhaps, does not fully realize his predatory nature.

There is no condemnation here — life turned out exactly like that. However, it is human nature to regret, even if for some reason he does not allow himself to do so. Gradually, through Elizabeth, who acts as a kind of mirror or prism, it becomes possible to look into each of the characters and try to understand that each is struggling in their own way, and that the difference between them is colossal not only due to age.

This is a film about intimacy, which by the end of the narrative may seem illusory, but it is not. It still exists, but it can be broken, not by a light movement, but by years of silence.

Trailer: