May December ending explained

Todd Haynes’ new movie May December has been making waves on Netflix this week – here’s the full ending explained.

Starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, the movie’s official synopsis reads: “Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance, a married couple buckle under the pressure when a Hollywood actress meets them to do research for a film about their past.”

While some viewers have been left shocked by certain scenes, others have drawn parallels to the real-life case of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau.

Some aspects of the film have purposefully generated ambiguous confusion – such as its name – so here’s the ending of May December explained in full. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

May December ending explained: Gracie comes under fire

Set in 2015, May December begins with well-known TV actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) who arrives at a house in Savannah, Georgia. Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) and her husband Joe (Charles Melton) live there and are in the middle of having a barbecue with their neighbors (spawning that famous hot dogs line). We soon come to realize that Elizabeth will be playing Gracie in an independent film and has come to observe the pair and find out more about their marriage.

It’s quickly ascertained that Gracie and Joe are merely keeping up appearances in their neighborhood, with not many people liking them. A pile of feces is sent to the pair during the barbecue, prompting the secrets of their marriage to be revealed. Years earlier, both Gracie and Joe were embroiled in a national scandal when 36-year-old Gracie employed and had relations with a 13-year-old Joe in their local pet shop.

23 years later, Gracie (almost 60) and Joe (now Gracie’s former age of 36) have been married ever since and now have three children – one of which was born in prison while Gracie served time. Elizabeth interviews them both about their relationship, while also speaking to Gracie’s ex-husband and son Georgie, who seems seriously damaged by the ordeal. Elizabeth also visits the pet shop where she eventually simulates their sexual acts in the stock room they supposedly met up in.

The questioning gets too close for comfort

Elizabeth continues to venture across town asking intimate questions in the name of research, going so far as to attend family events in the lead-up to the graduation of Gracie and Joe’s twins. Meanwhile, Joe gets closer to someone from a monarch butterfly-rearing Facebook group over text, which has become one of his main outlets during his marriage. Joe asks to take a holiday with the unknown woman, who quickly declines, sparking Joe to wonder what his life would have been like without his marriage and kids.

During a Q&A at the twin’s school, Elizabeth tells Mary’s (Elizabeth Yu) class that she likes playing “morally ambiguous” characters, offending Mary. Joe tries to connect with son Charlie, with the two sharing a joint on the roof, leading to Joe breaking down in Charlie’s arms. Elizabeth joins the family at a celebratory graduation dinner, where Georgie propositions her with dirt on Gracie in exchange for a music job on her film.

Georgie suggests that Gracie was sexually abused by her older brothers growing up, claiming to have read this in her diary. At the same time, Gracie grows increasingly frustrated with Elizabeth and her questioning. Slowly but surely, Elizabeth realizes that those close to her often do things for her out of pity – such as ordering her homemade cakes – rather than actually wanting anything to do with her.

Elizabeth has the last laugh

In the May December ending, Elizabeth invites Joe back to the accommodation she’s staying at. He gives Gracie a letter that she wrote him during their early years of romance, having hidden it away after being told to destroy all evidence of their correspondence. Elizabeth encourages Joe to start a new life away from Gracie, letting slip after the pair have sex that she experiences his life with Gracie as “a story.”

This leads Joe to tearfully wonder whether he was too young to engage with what happened, with Gracie maintaining the opinion that Joe seduced her and that he had total control. Elizabeth learns Gracie’s letter by heart, practicing it in the mirror as an intense and somewhat concerning monologue.

The day of the twins’ graduation comes and everyone is in attendance. However, after watching one of his butterflies emerge from its cocoon that same morning, a shell-shocked Joe watches tearfully on the outskirts. While Elizabeth gets ready to leave, Gracie suggests that Georgie’s information about her sexual assault was made up.

The final scene in the May December ending shows the fictional set of Elizabeth’s film, depicting Gracie grooming Joe. Elizabeth wants to do the scene over and over, claiming to be on the cusp of “getting more real,” after earlier promising Gracie that the movie would be honest, tasteful, and grounded.

May December is currently available to stream on Netflix. You can check out our other Netflix hubs below: 

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