[UPDATED]
Originally published May 21, 2023, 7:13pm

The romantic drama shines a critical spotlight on the way women who break society’s rules are held to much stricter standards than badly behaving men.

Moore plays a woman whose relationship with a 13-year-old boy drew national tabloid headlines.

“We expect this of men, these transgressions. We don’t of women. And we think: ‘What about her family? What about her kids?'” Haynes told Reuters yesterday.

“So the women are also burdened with an extra and unequal amount of criticism when this is the very same thing that can happen with people.”

The couple are still together two decades later when an actor – played by Portman – inserts herself into their life to prepare for a starring role in the film version of Moore’s story.

Her often boundary-crossing presence dredges up uncomfortable questions that Moore’s husband, played by Charles Melton of “Riverdale”, had never fully considered before.

“There are incredibly problematic aspects to how this relationship began, which this film works towards a confrontation of, towards the end,” Haynes told journalists.

“Yet this is so complicated by the fact that this relationship endured.”

And the meaning of the title? “It just refers to an older-younger relationship. May and December. And some people in France call it ‘Le Macron’,” he added.

Haynes had previously told the “Hollywood Reporter” that he had been drawn to the script as it featured “compelling female characters at their centre and two characters at such different ages”, adding that this was “very rare”.

Both Moore and Portman have won Oscars for best actress, in 2015’s “Still Alice” and 2011’s “Black Swan,” respectively.

“May December,” which was shot in just 23 days, is Moore’s fifth time working with Haynes.