The highly acclaimed romantic thriller May December premiered exclusively on Prime Video today. In addition to Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in the key roles, the film also stars Charles Melton, Elizabeth Yu, and Cory Michael Smith. Todd Haynes directed May December, an adaptation of a story by Alex Mechanikin and Samy Burch.

Plot and cast of May December

Nominated for an Academy Award, May December is a drama film based on the true story of an actress named Gracie, who explores the life of the controversial figure she will play in a film with the same title. The Mary Kay Letourneau incident serves as the inspiration for the story. Joe and Gracie's 23-year marriage, which began when he was 13 and she was 36, has made Gracie famous. The married couple, still reeling from the national scandal that their tabloid romance caused twenty years ago, are about to crumble under the weight of an actress who has come to investigate their history for a film.

Out of 363 films nominated by 106 British and foreign participants, May December scored tenth in Sight and Sound's choice of the 50 best films of 2023. Critics expressed dissatisfaction with the exclusion of Portman, Melton, and Moore from the acting categories for the 96th Academy Awards, despite their nominations from other major prize groups.

The Mary Kay Letourneau story

Despite being based on a work of fiction, May December draws similarities to a well-known true story. In February 1997, Biography reported that Mary Kay Letourneau, a school teacher, had been having an extramarital affair with Vili Fualaau, a 13-year-old student, since June 1996. "The incident was late at night, and it didn't stop with a kiss... And I thought that it would, but it didn't," Letourneau said in an interview with 20/20 about how the relationship started when Fualaau was 12 years old.

According to Biography, the revelation that Letourneau had an affair with a teenager was uncovered by her husband, Steve, who promptly notified the authorities. Letourneau's arrest occurred on March 4, 1997, during her pregnancy with Fualaau's child, according to reports. Audrey was born to the couple on May 29, 1997, via Letourneau, according to Page Six. People reported that after her guilty plea, the court sentenced her to six months in prison with three months suspended for felony second-degree rape of a child, and ordered her not to have any contact with Fualaau.

According to Page Six, officials found Letourneau having intercourse with Fualaau in a car a month after her January 1998 release, leading to her imprisonment. Letourneau gave birth to her second child, Georgia, on October 16, 1998, while serving a seven and a half-year prison sentence, according to the New York Times. The couple wed on May 20 of the same year (2004), and Page Six reported that Letourneau released Fualaau when she was 21 years old.

Read Also: 6 years of omertà! here's where you can watch hansal mehta-rajkummar rao's harrowing film on ott