I thought the ending was going to be Elizabeth filming the monologue from the letter that she practiced earlier. When she did it the first time she thought that Gracie was a vulnerable, abused person and showed a lot of emotion. I thought the second time, when she realized that Gracie was not abused and vulnerable, she was going to perform the monologue with less feeling and more control.
shareThink the ending was basically that- that she wanted to find the honesty of Gracie but still couldn't totally figure her out.
If anyone's interested, I reviewed the movie on my youtube channel. Appreciate any feedback. Trying to improve - https://youtu.be/um5Y-LhHXUM
yes, I can see that. Also agree with your review as well. It was interesting seeing at the end that it appears that the "movie" is going to be a campy soap opera style as opposed to the honest telling that Elizabeth was making it sound when with the family.
shareIn the review sometimes it's hard to understand some of the words. At 2:17, "Portman's leechy performance", or "Nietzsche performance" or a mispronounced "niche performance"??? Either way it makes little sense. Slow down a little and we can understand you better.
shareI caught this one last night. Wow - did the Mary Kay Letorneau mess really need to be revisited? She was bananas and I thought what she did was disgraceful. It's passed into unfortunate history at this point, and IMO should have stayed there. One doesn't know why anyone would want to produce a film that mirrors MKL's story. But it is what it is. I didn't care for "May December". I don't know what Natalie Portman was doing with her lisping. A lot of avenues, if explored, might have been interesting. But then suddenly, it ends. Very unsatisfying. One doesn't know why two really good actresses got involved in this. This was at Lifetime Network Movie level. Perhaps there simply isn't much good material out there for aging actresses.
shareI believe that Julianne Moore's character had a lisp and Natalie Portman's character exaggerated it.
shareYou may be right, although I don't know if I'm enough of a glutton for punishment to put myself thru another viewing, LOL. I certainly didn't notice any lisp from Julianne.
It was the scene in which Natalie was reciting the letter. The lisp was very pronounced. My thought was "Why is she doing that?".
I don't blame you. Definitely a one and done movie. I also think that Natalie Portman's character was not supposed to be a great actress. They kept saying that she was on TV and the final scene when filming the movie was very cheesy.
shareOk, just playing Devil's advocate - didn't they make a point of mentioning she was Julliard trained? Hahah - you know I'm sitting here thinking about it. I don't know what "May December" was trying to say, or prove. I didn't like the premise because I think MKL's story is awful. But even with that, it could have been interesting. It was like - incomplete. When it ended I thought "That's it?". So many avenues were left unexplored. For instance, where does Natalie's character go with the young husband after what they did? Was Gracie abused or not? Who was lying? What was really up with Gracie? Was she just plain bananas (like MKL)? Who left the box of you know what at the front door? What's up with the cake business? Strange movie. In thinking of it today one of my main questions is why did two very good actresses get involved in it?
shareyou think movies should be made of only good, nice people?
Lifetime movie? Ridiculous. You don't know much about the films that inspired this.
As far as I know, the inspiration was the Mary Kay Letourneau story. Do you know that story? It happened in real life - she got intimately involved with a 12 year old student. In this one, Gracie gets involved, intimately, with a 13 year old boy. Both MKL and Gracie married their young lovers. And, seemingly, both were happy. Which is fine, but to me, the entire episode is sick. I didn't see any reason to dredge it up.
Having said that, if this movie was inspired by something else, you'll have to let me know. And I mean that in a very friendly way. Because in my eyes, it's nothing but a slight variation on Mary Kay Letourneau's story.
I know what inspired this movie. I don't see why this isn't a story worth telling just because it's sick. How many true crime stories based on serial killers are made per year? And no one complains about that.
shareFair enough. I see your point ("Dahmer - Monster, The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" released in 2022) as various true crime stories are revisited year after year.
I actually found the 10 part Dahmer story very entertaining so maybe it's a personal thing.
But no one came out and said the Dahmer films were COMEDY. Imagine if Haynes directed one of the Dahmer movies, said it was a dark comedy and if you didn't see that then you must not be sophisticated enough to see it. I wasn't disturbed by the subject matter, in fact, I was touched to see how Joe/Vili finally realized that for twenty years since he was 12 he never really matured in the world. He never had another girlfriend. In that respect I thought it was good. But I failed to see the comedy in this.
shareI liked the film and I think this film was needed. Bec as much as there are people who dislike what MKL did, many don't find it that bad, both men and women. A lot of women defend her that it's a love story and if you watch interviews she has a little girl voice affectation. On another, the "who was the boss" line was taken verbatim between them. This attempts to show people how this could've affected a boy. Growing up with a lot of responsibilities and displaced in his own home.
Ps. Although I don't think there was a need to show genitalia, it didn't further the story imo.
I don't know about that. However, by the same token and to be completely fair, as I said yesterday - another Dahmer program came out in 2022. Was it needed? Probably not.
I liked the ten part Dahmer program. I didn't like "May December". However, where one is consistent is I think both of them - Mary Kay and Jeff - were awful. You're right, Mary Kay does try to come off as some naive, aloof little girl. But she was lying like crazy during her affair with the boy. I'm sorry but it's just sick IMO, a school teacher doing that with a little boy. Certainly not minimizing Jeffrey Dahmer - he was a complete whack job as well.
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the film. Your last sentence, believe it or not, I missed that. But I can still agree with you that whatever was shown, probably didn't need to be.