Poor Things Review

Poor Things sees three major players from The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos, Tony McNamara, and Emma Stone return for an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel.

Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is a brilliant surgeon who conducts amoral experiments at home. One of his experiments is Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a woman with the mind of a child. Godwin hires one of his students, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to study Bella’s development. However, as Bella grows up, she develops a desire for independence and wants to travel with the rakish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo).

Lanthimos has developed a reputation as one of the daring filmmakers currently working. He made his name with films like Dogtooth, and The Lobster. He has become known for making sexually charged films and Poor Things was certainly a sexually charged film. The Greek filmmaker got to make a film with his usual themes with the visuals and story of Tim Burton, Terry Gillam, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Poor Things was a demented fairytale and coming-of-age story. It was about Bella’s self-discovery where she learned about sexuality and philosophy. Bella grew from being an awkward toddler to a sex-driven young woman to a mature intellectual. It was a great character journey that sees Bella grow from someone with poor language and motor skills to becoming an independent woman, going from a destructive child who would throw a tantrum if she didn’t get her way, to an intellectual but naïve young woman, to being a fully formed person.

An early scene in Poor Things was when Bella wanted to play being a surgeon. Godwin allowed Bella to use a scalpel on a cadaver. This scene showed Bella’s childish destruction by stabbing the body, her sexual curiosity by playing with the penis, and also showed a desire to be like her father and be a scientist. It summed up Bella’s journey in a succinct manner.

There were shades of Dogtooth in Poor Things’ first act. Dogtooth was about a group of young adults who were raised in isolation and experimented sexually. Bella only knew Godwin’s house, she wanted to explore the outside world, and she discovered she could make herself happy any time she wanted. Bella’s story was like Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ where the confines of the world expand and she has many new experiences.

Poor Things was a feminist tale. It was a story of men trying to control Bella but could not. Bella’s destiny was in her own hands since she stood up against the authority figures. One character threatened violence and Bella didn’t accept it. Bella was a woman who was also taking control of sexuality, something that society has trouble with now, let alone back in the Victorian era. She goes from a youthful nymphomaniac to someone having a more balanced sex life when she cruises around the Mediterranean. Bella’s control and philosophy of her sexuality took an interesting turn when she entered Paris.

Poor Things was a wonderous-looking film, especially for its $35 million budget. There was a classic feel to it due to the surreal visuals. The first act was filmed in black and white and had a creepy gothic tone due to Godwin’s experiments. It was something Tim Burton would have done. There was a scene of wonder when Bella visited otherworldly versions of Lisbon and Alexandria.

Whilst Poor Things was a strange and thematic film, it was also hilarious. It gives the film some mainstream appeal. Emma Stone gave a terrific, physical performance: she mastered Bella’s awkward movements. She deserves another Oscar nomination for her performance. There were great performances and comedy throughout the film. Dafoe’s Godwin was dry and deadpan who was horribly abused by his father and Ruffalo’s Duncan was a melodramatic figure who couldn’t handle things going wrong. Even minor characters were memorable like Hanna Schygulla as a forthright older woman, Jerrod Carmichael as a cynic, and Margaret Queally as another of Godwin’s experiments. Admittedly I thought Queally was Aimee Lou Wood.

Poor Things was the complete package: it was a wonderfully unique-looking film that was hilarious and thematically grand.