Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) is an actress whose latest film is based on a true story. Her subject, Gracie (Julianne Moore) has agreed to let her come and interview her and her husband Joe (Charles Melton) about the content of the story in order for her to get a greater understanding of how to portray her. 

Gracie and Joe have a May to December relationship on which the film will be based and met as co-workers at a pet store. The controversy though, is that at the time Gracie was 36 years old and Joe was 13, the same age as one of Gracie’s three children with her husband. After becoming pregnant with his child she went to prison, but they married upon her release and had two more children. Those twins are just about to graduate from High School with Joe now the same age as Gracie was when she began her sexual relationship with him. 

The focus of the film though is only ever on the information that Elizabeth is able to obtain through her interviews with Gracie, Joe and other parties in the town who will agree to speak to her such as Gracie’s lawyer, ex-husband and children. And what makes the film so brilliantly fascinating is how the script never lets you get sure-footing on what each character’s motivations are now or in the past. 

Gracie initially comes across as naive. Who in their right mind would think that agreeing to be interviewed by an actress who was about to portray her in a film on this subject would be a good idea? But she believes that if she knows her better she can represent her better. At no point does she consider what she has done problematic. But when you watch her interactions with Joe there are elements of controlling behaviour. She has depressive moods that initially seem debilitating but later appear to be an element of that control. Is she a naive woman falling apart or a predator able to manipulate those to her needs? 

Joe appears to be in a state of arrested development. He had to look after his siblings growing up and that role appears to have transferred to his wife. Meanwhile he spends any part of his day not running errands for her drinking beer and texting an online friend about the butterflies he helps to rear. Is he trapped forever as a young boy by controlling women or about to emerge from his chrysalis and escape this life? 

Whilst Elizabeth starts out as an actress searching for information she slowly begins to become her subject. As she digs deeper her looks, mannerisms and voice inflections match her subject. Whilst the actions she takes to get to know her subject almost begin to feel sociopathic in there absence of thought for how it will impact the people she is studying. Natalie Portman does an incredibly subtle and unsettling job of changing her character behaviour to a point where I was unsure if her character was acting or uncaring. Is Elizabeth a sociopath or is her portrayal of Gracie reflecting those tendencies? 

There are also some very on the nose metaphors and soap opera moments to unpack and consider. We see and hear of Gracie’s character hunting. Joe rears caterpillars, caring for them in their chrysalis phase and seeing them emerge as butterflies. Whilst some banal moments, such as a possible lack of hot dogs for a party are played like moments of great drama… is this the film that will later be made? 

The result is an endlessly fascinating film that I am still thinking about. The story/screenplay from Alex Mechanik and Samy Burch is filled with so many layers whilst the direction from Todd Haynes is masterful. And the three lead performances are so nuanced to convey all of these possible meanings. 

A wonderfully detailed and brilliantly crafted feature.