“Why can’t we talk about it, if we’re really as in love as we say we are?!”

Film number three on my trip at this year’s London Film Festival, May December is an emotion-packed punch that kept me thinking throughout.

I went into this film unexpecting of the heaviness of its content. As I sat down for the film, the orchestral score was playing. I felt stunned by its bittersweet beauty. I knew what I was going to watch was going to break my heart, but, without extensive knowledge of the plot, I was unaware it would disturb me deeply too. That being said, this made the film all the more complex and memorable. The film tackles the subject matter maturely, showcasing the gravity of the consequences and the worldviews of those involved. The details of the event are treated as a mystery which drew me in as a big fan of the mystery genre, and, in the end, left me with more questions than answers.

For a dark and heavy-going film, it holds a lot of comedy too. The film has an overall camp tone, which is fitting for the actress’s melodramatic rehearsing, and drawing light-hearted moments from the characters. The comedy lands the mark quite often and is delivered finely from all actors. It gives birth to some cliché moments in the dialogue, but nothing too horrific. It’s not what brought me to tears in this film, that would be Charles Melton (we’ll get to him later), but it definitely balances out the viewing and manages to not feel jarring.

Natalie Portman performs the visiting actress well, displaying the politeness of being a guest and the pretension that can occur in some actors. Though I found her presence in the film to be underwhelming. This is not a fault of her acting, but rather a fault of the writing. With the entire plot focusing on the unravelling mystery of the married couple’s past, it leaves no room for her character development. She’s ultimately a vessel for the audience to see the film through. But Natalie Portman’s graceful performance makes the character seem worthwhile enough. Her monologue at the end was one of the highlights of the film for me.

Julianne Moore plays the second lead and absolutely nails every scene she’s in. She performs the role of a naïve, shallow and emotionally-stunted person excellently. Watching her character manipulate those around her felt so realistic, it truly filled me with resentment at times. And yet, through her gripping performance, she managed to humanise such an irredeemable person. The sincerity in her acting never made me excuse the character’s actions, but certainly made me understand her pain and troubles. To make someone feel emotion towards a kind of person they fundamentally resent is truly an achievement in acting.

However, it is Charles Melton who delivers one of the finest performances I’ve seen at the festival. He plays the role so delicately, boosting the confusion of the character with a tidal wave of sensitivity. Watching his character slowly unravel through the runtime and expose this supressed emotion an explosion of fragility was a poignant experience, and beautiful in its execution. I hope this kickstarts a brilliant career for Charles Melton, because if he continues to deliver performances like this one, then he deserves undoubtedly.

I’ll be very surprised if this film doesn’t receive award recognition, especially for the performances. May December is a film that I expect will stay in my mind for a while. I went in relatively clueless and came out perplexed, but at least I had the knowledge that I saw an excellent film!