May/December ★★★½

ONE of the biggest omissions from the recent Academy Awards’ nominees was Todd Haynes’ May/December.

At the least I would have placed it above both Barbie and Maestro and given nods to Natalie Portman and Charles Melton over Annette Benning in Nyad and Ryan Gosling in Barbie.

Before anyone starts, by the way, I thought the first half of Barbie was terrific but the second half belaboured its serious points a little too much at the expense of the humour.

Anyway, the Academy rightfully acknowledged May/December’s screenplay nomination for Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik which was inspired by a real-life scandal.

The film is set in 2015 and Portman plays an actress named Elizabeth Berry who arrives in Savannah, Georgia, to meet the woman she will be playing in a new film.

Berry will be spending a few weeks getting to know Gracie Atherton-Yoo, and her family. Two decades earlier, then 36-year-old Gracie, played by Julianne Moore, was at the centre of a sex scandal when she had a relationship with Joe Yoo (Melton), a 13-year-old schoolmate of her son Georgie.

During her subsequent prison sentence Gracie gave birth to Joe’s child and married him after she was freed. They now have two children around the same age as Jow was when he was seduced by Gracie.

Adding further fuel to this fascinating fire is Elizabeth’s growing obsession with the family she is meant to be just observing.

May/December is a typical Haynes’ film in that you have little idea where the narrative, structure and mood will move to next. Each time you think you know what kind of film you are watching, Haynes pulls the rug out from under the audience and you have to start again.

It’s a film that I appreciated more in the days following.

Watched at the cinema