2002
Written and Directed by:
Lucky McKee

Starring:
Angela Bettis - May
Jeremy Sisto - Adam
Anna Faris - Polly

May is an odd young woman who looks like she was drawn by Edward Gorey. As a little girl, she has to wear an eye patch to correct a "lazy" eye. Her mother encourages her to keep the patch covered with her long hair if she wants to make friends. But making friends doesn't come easily to May, not with that patch to make her different than the other kids. "If you can't find a friend," her mother tells her later, "make one," and she gives May a doll named Suzy that she made when she was a little girl. Mom says it was her best friend back then, and now it will be May's best friend. But it's not a doll to be played with - it stands in its box and stares out sadly, all alone, separated by glass walls from everything it sees.

When we next see May, she is an adult, but she still has Suzy, her best friend - her only friend. She still talks to the doll and dances around in front of it to model the new clothes she just made. May sews a lot and makes her own clothes. She works in a veterinary hospital. Except for the doll, she lives alone. And she's weird - but she knows she's weird. There is something sad and charming about May. Like her only friend, the doll in the glass box, she remains separate from others, somehow cut off from the life that flows around her.

She begins a relationship with Adam, a filmmaker she meets at the laundrymat, who also recognizes that May is weird, but who says, "I like weird." She is not surprised to learn that Adam was once a hand model because she loves his hands and tells him she thinks they're beautiful. May notices individual parts of people - she tells her coworker Polly that she has a beautiful neck. It is to Polly that May turns when things go sour with Adam, and she begins another relationship when Polly tells her, "I love weird."

But May is ready for neither of these relationships - she is not emotionally equipped for them. May, in fact, is not emotionally equipped to have a pet. When the relationships unravel, so does May, and this oddly sensitive character study becomes a gruesome horror movie with a sly wit and a powerhouse performance by Angela Bettis (NBC's miniseries Carrie) at its center.

First-time writer-director Lucky McKee has created a strange little movie that grows on you as you watch it. May herself grows on you - rail-thin with her big sad eyes and pale skin and her shy smile that can grow to bursting, barely containing her happiness. There's something so completely lost about her that we want her to find her way, to somehow bridge the gap between her weird little world - which we never quite penetrate - and real life.

Lucky lived up to his name when he cast Angela Bettis in the title role. Then he proved he has a director's instincts by knowing when to hang back and let her performance rule the screen. Although we are never allowed to step into May's weird private world - we know how important Suzy is to her, we know she cuts herself to relax, but we never quite understand it all - May is, thanks to Bettis, a character full of life and depth who is at once charming and unsettling. When things go bad, we are not only horrified, we are saddened by May's descent into madness.

The Internet Movie Database describes May as, "A modern take on Frankenstein," but I don't agree. The real monster in this movie is human need. May is content to live her solitary life with her one-and-only friend, Suzy the doll in her glass casket, until she falls in love with Adam (and his hands). When that doesn't work out, she is left needing him - needing someone for the first time in her life. But just as she is not emotionally equipped for a relationship, neither is she equipped to deal with the need left behind by one. That need is briefly filled by Polly (and her neck), but it can never again be filled by Suzy the doll alone. May's need is so strong, so powerful, it breathes life into the thing it compels her to create.

We never get under May's skin in a way that allows us to know her, so we are left to observe her as others do - a strange, sad, lonely young woman whose hold on reality is tenuous at best. We see flashes of May's dark side, as when she tells Adam a gruesome story about work in which a dog's intestine bursts open and, while telling it, wears a broad, satisfied smile. Bettis's peformance fills in the gaps and effectively fleshes May out, but I still found myself wanting to see more of what was beneath the surface, more of what had shaped May into such a bizarre person.

Bettis is supported by a fine cast, including Jeremy Sisto (HBO's Six Feet Under) as Adam and Anna Faris (The Hot Chick) as Polly. Both actors find just the right note in their interactions with the odd but compelling May. Also notable is the film's moody music by Jaye Barnes-Luckett.

Lucky McKee is a director to watch. He is confident enough in his story and cast to keep things simple and direct - May is refreshingly lacking in the kind of flashy, show-off moves that first-time directors often employ to capture attention.

May is an entertaining, funny, and disturbing little gem that will someday be the kind of movie that's worth staying up late for when it shows up on cable. Right now, though, May is floating around from screen to screen. It will be released in Fresno, Austin, and Dallas on Jan. 31. Watch for it to open at an art house near you.

[Out of a possible four Bloodshot Eyeballs.]