Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Tony McNamara and Alasdair Gray
Stars: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo
Synopsis: The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
Poor Things is another wild and unexpected stroke of filmmaking genius from Yorgos Lanthimos. No, it’s not his original material. Still, the adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s work is a perfect match in cinematic heaven for fans of the director’s gifts for surrealism and dark psychological comedy. His latest will bring any cinephile unexpected joy because Poor Things constantly challenges and surprises them, which is rare for resolute film enthusiasts and critics alike.
The story follows Bella (Emma Stone), an adult woman with a child’s mind brimming with innocence and self-discovery. According to Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), Emma’s body was pulled from the river that she leaped into from the bridge above, clearly succumbing to some sort of grief. Godwin resurrects Bella with controversial techniques and replaces her brain with a child’s in a move that would make Dr. Frankenstein proud.
Godwin hires Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), a public health official, to study and document Bella’s progress. Bella is a fascinating case. She throws tantrums and tests boundaries, like any precocious child. Bella looks at Dr. Godwin as a father figure, wanting to do what her “father” does. For example, taking a knife and curiously carving up a human cadaver, just like the “good” doctor.
Of course, Godwin’s unorthodox methods lead to the unintended consequence of self-discovery for Bella. She begins to balk at Dr. Baxter’s suffocating parenting style, which is used to keep his secret project under wraps and runs off to experience the world. Bella does that with Duncan Wedderburn (a slimy Mark Ruffalo), a depraved lawyer (as Colonel Jessup would say, “Is there any other kind?”) who is as far from Atticus Finch as one can get.
Poor Things is based on the novel of the same name by Gray. The landmark work is an outlandish tale that was meant to shine a light on equality and liberation from social constraints. Lanthimos, the beloved critical darling, has been on a hot streak with The Lobster, The Favourite, and now, Poor Things. He does a wonderful job conveying the nuanced depth of the original material’s themes, absurdity, and capriciousness.
What makes Lanthimos’s films so uncomfortable for some is that he pushes the boundaries of social conventions like no filmmaker of his generation. How many directors can be disturbing and incredibly funny all at the same time? This juxtaposition is often accomplished regarding cinematic clichés, particularly related to female characters.
All of this is brought to life by Emma Stone, who gives the best performances of her career. Stone brings a guilelessness to the role that any parent recognizes as joyful, but in situations that are often adult and disturbing. Even though Bella is a child, she is free of social constraints that bring shame to knowing she shouldn’t be the one exploring a life of sexual desires. Stone’s turn is simply stunning, with a subtle nuance that begins to sneak up on you.
Her character is far from a manic pixie woman solely to quench a man’s needs. Bella has a thirst for gluttonous urges, lots of sex, food, drugs, and alcohol to satisfy her limitless curiosities. Stone’s performance, however, is far from one-note in which you “see the world through the eyes of,” as in the Forrest Gump variety. Bella is an evolving character who goes from a dependent to the full realization that she can be “a means of their own production.”
The adaptation was written by Lanthimos’s collaborator Tony McNamara, whose script for The Favourite was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. McNamara plots the film expertly, educating the viewer on the hypocrisy of women’s rights at the time. Bella was being treated as a child because of her undeveloped brain. The filmmakers embrace this visual metaphor of infantilization as a point of the standard limiting of the genders’ free will and independence.
Poor Things has much to say about social inequalities, identity, and relationships. However, you could argue, based on the source material and the testosterone levels of the filmmakers, that this is a film that almost mansplains themes without a feminist theoretical lens. Yes, it’s overindulgent and overbearing, especially when you realize the production value graduates into the Wes Anderson Masterclass territory. However, that’s the unapologetic Lanthimos experience that makes him one of the most unique filmmakers working today.
