Reviewer David Leninhawk returns with a look at Poor Things.
Poor Things is an absolute triumph of a motion picture. It is an often hilarious tale of female self-actualization set in a visually splendorous world which recalls the Victorian age by way of Georges Méliès and, mildly, even a bit H.G. Wells or Terry Gilliam. It is a film with much philosophy about the human condition on its mind (the author of the source novel was apparently a Socialist, so there are some critiques of Capitalism along with explorations of nihilism and general classism), while still remaining steadfastly focused on character. On a basic level the film is about a woman coming of age amidst a world of mostly men (but a couple of women too) attempting to possess, trap, or constraint her as she steadfastly proceeds along her own desired path of exploration, experience, and discovery. Or I could just be reductive and call it Barbie for sickos, which isn’t terribly inaccurate either. Regardless, it is a stunning piece of work, anchored together by a truly impressive lead performance from Emma Stone as Bella Baxter.
Bella begins the film as pretty much an infant or toddler inside an adult woman’s body, courtesy of an experiment surgeon named Godwin (Willem Dafoe), whom Bella calls “God”. Godwin is a scarred and monstrous looking Frankenstein-esque doctor with a paternal love toward Bella, seeing her as equal parts daughter, creation, and science experiment. Godwin elists one of his more eager medical students, Max (Ramy Youssef) to watch Bella throughout the day and collect data on her progress for him.
Bella starts off as stumbling and uncoordinated as a young child, with an unfirm grasp of the English language, and Stone’s performance must have been exceedingly challenging when considering the physicality of Bella’s gait and the dialogue she has to find ways to deliver in an authentic manner. As her character progresses and “grows up” throughout the course of the film, I also imagine it was incredibly difficult to keep straight where Bella was exactly in her mental and emotional development, and apparently as much of the film was shot in sequence as possible to assist her in this challenge.
Despite Bella having the mental capacity of a child for the first act of the film, Max still sort of falls for her, and Godwin, wanting Bella to stay in his home where he can keep her safe and protected, thinks it best Max marry Bella and they live together in his home. Godwin calls upon a lawyer, Duncan (an absolutely hilarious and scene-stealing Mark Ruffalo) to draw up a contract to this effect. However, Duncan is intrigued by what type of woman would inspire such an agreement requiring her to be a kept, isolated woman. He’s something of a cad and a lothario, so he finds a way to meet and seduce Bella just as she is on the cusp of her sexual awakening, and soon Bella is ready to run off with Duncan to see the world and begin an exploration of the land outside, doubling as an interior exploration of herself, who she is, and what she truly wants.
The first act of this film is largely in black and white, and the visuals of the film ape those of various silent films, with a big debt toward Méliès and some mild inspiration from German Expressionism. There’s usage of fish-eye lenses, as well various shots that are simply an isolated iris. Production design often consists of fabricated exteriors with digital or painted mattes for the far background or sky (there might also be some rear projection employed at times). It sometimes gives the effect of either a stage play on a massive and impossible stage, or of the Epcot World Showcase in terms of a fabricated and somewhat fantastical depiction of locations such as Lisbon, Portugal or Paris.
The film switches to color once Bella truly hits her sexual awakening, and the color scheme will somehow be equal parts extremely colorful like “Dick Tracy” but also slightly desaturated so as to not hit the audience over the face with color even as the film presents as steadfastly colorful. The film is slightly fantastical and not period-accurate, but the anachronisms generally present themselves in the form of technology, such as the design of a boat or cable cars which evoke something not quite steampunk and not quite retro-futuristic yet still just fantastical enough to heighten this world beyond the real.
This is a film with a lot of sex, and Stone does quite a bit more nudity than we are perhaps used to seeing in this modern era of sex scene discourse from an A-list female actor, and it’s all essential to the story this film is telling, which is very much about the role female sexuality plays in how a woman learns about and navigates the world.
Bella begins as a somewhat insatiable sexual creature during what might be called her “adolescence”, bristling against the social limits behind what sexual activities and dialogue may take place amidst “polite society”. Her somewhat hedonistic and libertine nature is one that the men who wish to possess her bristle against, though this isn’t so much a monogamy versus polyamory clash as much as a journey into how men desire sex from women and will use them for such, but then judge and castigate them if women also desire sex in turn.
Later, there are explorations into sex work, looking at both exploitative and egalitarian view points into it as well as its role within a Capitalist system where the sex worker is herself the means of production in a sense, and male attitudes toward female sex workers where they both create the demand and benefit from the labor while also judging and demeaning the laborer therein.
Bella, even as her language skills develop, remains a plain speaking and blunt person, stating exactly what she thinks and feels without couching it in any way in which she would protect herself or the listener to her words. In the beginning at her most childlike it is because she is all Id, but later it is simply because she has not been beaten down by society to hide her feelings or express them within more delicate phrasing, though appreciation for her unusual amount of candor varies dependent upon the particular character she’s speaking to or situation she finds herself in.
In many ways, Bella is a character who always remains true to herself and her wants and needs regardless of those around her, not in a narcissistic or unempathetic way, but rather in a way in which she will not let herself be judged or stopped once she has committed herself to a set of goals or a piece of knowledge she wishes to acquire.
All of this may sound heavy, but the film is often uproariously funny, with an intelligent script that is clever and amusing with visual gags that are surreal and bizarre. Some of it is as simply as Bella naively referring to sex as “furious jumping” or the plain, matter-of-fact way she speaks about things that are not often talked about so bluntly and honestly. Ruffalo’s Duncan, who grows ever more unhinged as Bella refuses to comport that what he wants out of her, is nothing less than a laugh riot as his rapscallion ways are no match from Bella’s straightforwardness and agency. Despite the lofty themes and artistic visuals, the humor potentially makes this Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible feature, regardless of how thoroughly weird it can be.
Poor Things is a rapturous delight from start to finish, though the pacing is thrown off a smidge around the last 20 minutes or so when you think the film is wrapping up (in a more conventional way than you expect) before Christopher Abbott’s character walks in and we get one final segment, leading to what is ultimately a more fitting end that wraps a nice little bow on the film’s journey and themes. I was never not impressed or delighted throughout the film by Stone’s performance, the engaging and refreshing visuals, or the humor and concepts the film plays with. I absolutely adored and admired this film, and it is a stellar achievement that stands out so many far more pedestrian and unambitious features we may often get nowadays. Poor Things is really something special.
Guest writer David Leninhawk sees a LOT of movies. Check out Letterboxd for more reviews.