May December
The 2023 mordant comedy dramaMay Decembertells a shocking chronicle of a kinship old age col that ’s uncomfortable to consider for many reason - particularly since , somehow , actor Julianne More and director Todd Haynes wield to make the perpetrator into a grapheme viewers can ( almost ) sympathize with . It ’s a film that calls many moral boundaries into question , with a nuance that makes its many accolades , including Golden Globes and Academy Awards , understandable . However , whileMay Decembermay treat its uncomfortable matter matter in a way that does n’t steer the finger’s breadth of blame , the same ca n’t be said for the honest story that inspired it .
Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton - Yoo intheMay Decembercast , a woman found hangdog of raping a 13 - class - honest-to-god boy in the early 1990s . While in prison house , she gave birth to the boy ’s nipper , and decades later on the brace are married and have a family together ( which is where the nuanced exploration of the situation comes into play , explored through Natalie Portman ’s Elizabeth playing Gracie in movie within the motion-picture show ) . The true story behindMay December , while not a direct adaption , is that of Mary Kay Letourneau - and the veridical - aliveness events are both just as engrossing and uncomfortable to contemplate as the 2023 movie .
Who Is Mary Kay Letourneau?
The Inspiration For Julianne Moore’s May December Character Explained
The plot ofMay Decemberis heavily based on the lifetime and criminal case of Seattle teacher Mary Kay Letourneau , who became internationally infamous in the late nineties . While not a biopic , May Decemberdraws divine guidance from its true narration heavily to the point that some of Julianne Moore ’s lines in the 2023 moving-picture show are at once pick out from interview with Letourneau herself . Just like Julianne Moore’sMay Decembercharacter Gracie , Mary Kay Letourneau was jail for having a sexual family relationship with an underaged male child many ten jr. than her .
Theshocking age gap inMay Decemberwas instantly taken from the unfeigned story . In 1996 , when she was 34 , Mary Kay Letourneau became physically intimate with one of her students , Vili Fulalaau . At the meter , Fulalaau was only 12 years sure-enough ( A year younger than Joe inMay December ) . The pair were find when a passerby notice them romantically interacting in a car . However , this did n’t stop their kinship .
Letourneau continued her activities with Fulalaau until 1996 when she was arrested and commit with second - point rape , to which she plead guilty . It was Letourneau ’s first husband , Steve Letourneau , who eventually managed to provide concrete proof of the abuse when he discovered amorous letters she ’d written to Fulalaau .
Much like Allen inMay December , Mary Kay Letourneau insist she had a genuine amorous fastening to Fulalaau . grant to Letourneau , she was n’t a predatory animal and had no interest in children or younger men . Her feelings for Fulalaau were circumscribe to him and him alone , with the illegal age gap being something she claimed she had to morally overcome . Shockingly , she was also adamant that it as he who seduced her , and not the other mode around .
Also like Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen inMay December , Letourneau and Fulalaau ’s relationship persist in during and after her prison sentence , and the pair eventually married and started a family . ab initio , Letourneau only wait on a 3 - calendar month prison sentence on the condition she dilute all ties with the minor . However , she breached her probation consideration and was then condemn to seven years . Once she ’d served her full conviction in 2005 , she reconnected with Fulalaau , and the pair tie .
The multifaceted ending of Todd Haynes ' May December find Portman ’s Elizabeth study the accuracy of Moore ’s controversial Gracie character .
Why Mary Kay Letourneau’s Case Drew So Much Attention
The Media Coverage Exposed A Shocking Societal Double Standard
May Decembercaptured an unsettlingyet important aspect of the Mary Kay Letourneau case . Much like in the film , the true history that inspiredMay Decemberdrew a huge amount of international medium attention . It also created many uncomfortable questions about how order treat and views older char who seduce nonaged men .
It was always clear , even during the nineties when Letourneau and Fulalaau ’s relationship come to light , that there was a significant double standard when it come to how intimate predators are perceived .
It was always clear , even during the nineties when Letourneau and Fulalaau ’s family relationship came to light , that there was a important twofold standard when it came to how sexual predators are perceived . There ’s footling doubt that , had Letourneau been manful and Fulalaau female , she would have justly received a lengthier sentence . There also would n’t have been any romanticizing of their relationship , which many media outlets at the metre revoltingly did , paint the suit as a floor of forbidden love rather than what it actually was - a small fry being groom and abused by an grownup . This is evidenced by the fact that - as outrageous as it seems - Letourneau , along with her and Fulalaau ’s child , was featured on the screen of an issuing ofPeoplein 1998 .
May December is a drama romance film that follows a married couple who once controlled the headlines with their tabloid romance. Two decades later, the couple’s supposed marital bliss begins to crack under the weight of an actress researching them, preparing to star in a film about their lives.
The media perception of Fulalaau was just as distressful . Rather than being described as a victim , which he was , he was instead treated by the media almost as an adult in their own right wing . In recent years there have been interchangeable cases that justly name kinship like Letourneau and Fulalaau ’s as the offense they in reality are . Unfortunately , though , this was n’t the compositor’s case in the 1990s , and this is one panorama of events thatMay Decembermanaged to capture notably well .
What May December Changes About Letourneau’s Story
While Heavily Inspired By The True Story, May December Isn’t A Biopic
WhileMay Decemberdraws much from the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau , it is n’t a biopic or a direct adaptation . There are many things that it change , and it ’s always of import to remember that Julianne Moore ’s Gracie and Letourneau are n’t the same soul . There are many changesMay Decembermade to the tale , some of which are quite important .
first of all , the way that Gracie meets Joe Yoo , the child she score , has the child of , and eventually marry inMay Decemberis completely different from how Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fulalaau ’s relationship began . To Gracie inMay December , Joe was simply a tyke in her Logos ’s class , and it was n’t until they start out working together at a pet depot that she groomed him .
This was a different , and arguably less vulturine , active than that of Fulalaau and Letourneau . As Fulalaau ’s instructor , Letourneau was in a status of exponent over him , and he was a child placed at once under her forethought . This dynamic was absentminded fromMay December , which help to make Gracie easier for audiences to sympathise with her somewhat .
The final meaning change was the childrenGracie and Joe had inMay December . In the movie , Gracie gave parentage to her first child with Joe during her prison prison term , and was meaning by the prison term she was arrested . However , Mary Kay Letourneau did n’t have three baby with Fulalaau , but two . What ’s more , she gave birth to their first child between prison house conviction . It was their 2d child , a girl , who was born behind bars during the second sentencing Letourneau get after break the condition of her probation by contacting Fulalaau .
Where Mary Kay Letourneau Is Now
The Inspiration For May December Passed Away In 2020
Much like Gracie and Joe inMay December , Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fulalaau continued their relationship into Fulalaau ’s adulthood , and the couple espouse and started a kinfolk . However , Fulalaau and Letourneau eventually dissociate in 2019 . Like Joe inMay December , Fulalaau also eventually come up to realize that he had been abused .
Letourneau passed away in 2020 due to Crab at years 58 . At no tip in her life did Mary Kay Letourneau ever show compunction for her actions , or acknowledge that she ’d abuse Vili Fulalaau . This is perhaps the most shocking prospect of all , and it ’s also something thatMay Decemberconveys incredibly well in how it bring the genuine story to the silver screen with Julianne Moore ’s character , Gracie .
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May December is a drama Romance language film that fall out a married couple who once contain the headlines with their tabloid romance . Two decennium later , the pair ’s conjecture married bliss begins to crack under the weight of an actress research them , preparing to star in a motion picture about their life .
