Beautifully directed and acted, Poor Things is unlike anything this year. This is one that you have to check out before the Academy Awards. Available to own digitally now, streaming and physical releases within the next week.
“The incredible tale of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by a brilliant and unorthodox scientist. Seeking the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”
Based on the book of the same name, Poor Things is the story of a Frankenstein-monster-like creator and creation, in which Bella, a woman who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in London, is re-animated by Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Godwin, a character whose looks and backstory closely mirror a Frankenstein-monster-like creation himself, has become a renowned physician and scientist, yet ridiculed by his peers based on his looks. Through his teachings at university he takes a young medical student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) under his wing in order to help him make notes and assist with the developmental progress of Bella, who in the beginning has the coordination and intelligence of an infant. With Godwin forbidding her to leave the property, Bella’s desires to explore the world she is beginning to understand leads to her running off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a charming playboy who takes her on an adventure through Europe in which she begins to learn things about the world and herself that opens her eyes to the wonderous possibilities of life.
Poor Things isn’t a simple and straightforward viewing of a film. It’s an experience, both visually and audibly, with these elements being just as important as the dialogue. The film begins in black and white, with a clunky and sporadic instrumental musical score, mirroring Bella’s view of the world in her current state. As Bella learns, experiences new things, and most importantly, explores the world around her, our view of the film changes as well: bright and vivid colors, wonderous, accentuated and exaggerated cityscapes and horizons, a view that of someone truly experiencing and understanding the beauty of the world of the first time. This visual transition is perhaps one of my favorite aspects of the film, in which director Yorgos Lanthimos is able to capture the themes of the film in this most interesting manner.
Emma Stone’s performance as Bella Baxter is nothing short of spectacular. The film is nominated in quite a few categories this year at the Academy Awards, all deserving, but probably none more so than her for Best Performance. The growth of her character’s mental state is portrayed perfectly by Emma Stone, with sequences both emotional and physical that sees her entirely embodying herself as Bella Baxter. Mark Ruffalo is also quite good, with his role providing a lot of funny moments throughout the film. I also thought Willem Dafoe was the perfect choice as Godwin Baxter. Although he’s not exactly Frankenstein’s monster, I can’t quite help but think of him that way and be fascinated that a lump of stitched together flesh could grow and be capable of performing the same extraordinary feats of science that his creator did. His character walks a line between scientific curiosity, paternal instincts, and utter tragedy as we learn of the awful experiments that were performed on him by his father.
The character of Bella Baxter has to mentally progress a lifetime in the span of a few short months during her adventures. This progress is astonishing to watch, but has its moments where the pacing slows down considerably. While I loved seeing her grow and react to each new situation with wonder, allowing these experiences to soak in and add to her character, there could have been a few things altered to hasten the pacing in a more organic way. There also is a moment at the end where it’s alluded to that something is going to happen that ultimately doesn’t. While I won’t give it away, and can understand the direction given the feminist theme of the film, I was initially a bit disappointed, but for sure need some additional time to reflect on its meaning, which is always the mark of a good film.
We were given a digital code to review Poor Things. At the moment, it is available for purchase digitally, and will be available for streaming on 3/7/24. The physical copy will be released the following week on 3/12/24 on DVD and Blu-ray only, with no 4k release unfortunately. It’s great to see Disney continuing to fund the recently acquired Searchlight Pictures, as it’s films like this that makes filmmaking special, and as the second-most nominated film of the year, this is one to be sure to check out.
