This Netflix film doesn’t exactly provide us with great female role models, but it’s a tour-de-force performance from two fantastic actresses about the power struggle between two incredibly flawed women. Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton, a woman who seduced a 7th-grade boy and then married and had children with him after her release from prison. Natalie Portman plays Elizabeth Berry, an actress who is observing and researching Gracie in order to play her in a movie. Sometimes it feels like a parody of made-for-TV movies, other times a sophisticated character study of predators and their prey. It’s clearly inspired by the tabloid scandal of Mary Kay LeTourneau, but Portman and Moore make the characters their own in performances that keep you guessing.
Image from Netflix.
