Poor Things (2023) Review
Emma Stone Dazzles In a Strange and Wonderful Fairytale Take On Frankenstein
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
Yorgos Lanthimos is a weirdo and I am totally here for it. His movies exist on an offbeat wavelength and are often wickedly funny and always fascinating to watch (The Lobster in particular is one of my favorite films from the 2010s). His name was attached to a lot of different projects for a while that sadly didn’t come to fruition - including an adaptation of Otessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which I really hope he gets back to at some point - but thankfully one that did eventually go into production was an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, Poor Things.
We begin in a fanciful version of London in the 19th century as a woman throws herself from a tall bridge into the Thames. We’re then introduced to an earnest medical student named Max McCandless as he’s enlisted by a brilliant but disfigured surgeon, Dr. Godwin Baxter (or God for short), to look after that same woman, the oddly childlike Bella Baxter. Bella’s mental acuity progresses rapidly, and God reveals that Bella is not a patient of his so much as an experiment. He found the corpse of the woman from the bridge, and reanimated her with the brain of the infant child she was carrying in her womb. As Bella matures and discovers her sexuality, she embarks on a wild adventure with the rakish lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn.
Now, this is a disturbing and uncomfortable premise, and Lanthimos is fully aware of that. He revels in the discomfort and absurdity, and uses them to explore all of the ethical problems they create. Using Frankenstein (the book, not the movie, important distinction) as a model, the story explores feminine autonomy and sexuality, as Bella is subjected to the trappings, both figurative and literal, of the men in both her first and second lives. Afterwards, I found myself thinking it would make an interesting double feature with Barbie, since they cover similar themes in completely different ways. As dark as the story might sound, it was actually a joy to watch, like a twisted fairytale. First and foremost, this is a pitch black comedy, and I was laughing out loud gleefully at several points. The script is as sharp as the scalpel Bella stabs into a cadaver’s eyes. It’s also a very thoughtful story, pondering various philosophies of how to live as Bella encounters several exotic characters and becomes her own person. It’s also bizarrely wholesome, which I really appreciated. I love dark comedies, they’re my favorite genre in film next to science fiction, and it’s very rare that they have anything close to a happy ending, but I left the theater with a goofy grin.
Bella’s reanimation.
For a film as out there as this to work, it really needs to be good on multiple layers, and Poor Things swings for the fences and hits on every level. Emma Stone gives a tour-de-force performance as Bella, and is completely committed to her stilted and childish mannerisms and dialogue. Her physical acting is so convincingly off-putting that it becomes easy to believe that she has an infant’s brain in adult’s body, and her comedic timing is perfect. She absolutely deserves the incoming avalanche of acting award nominations that are almost certainly headed her way. Willem Dafoe is already a master of playing offbeat characters (I’m still bitter that he didn’t even get nominated for an Oscar for The Lighthouse), and is hilarious as the pleasantly unhinged God, particularly when he details the increasingly ridiculous experiments performed on him by his father. Mark Ruffalo is a talented actor, but I was actually surprised at how great he was as Duncan Wedderburn. He’s at times charming, petty, not too bright, silly, and watching his plan to take advantage of Bella blow up in his face is both satisfying and amusing. He kind of reminded be of a more depraved Coen brothers character. The rest of the supporting cast is also superbly off-kilter.
The cinematography, set design, and costumes are all just as weird and colorful as the story and actors. They bring the fairytale to life in such a magical way that you don’t question the choices at all, and they mirror Bella’s childlike wonder. Stylistically, the film would be in good company with Jeunet & Caro (particularly The City of Lost Children and maybe a bit of Amélie), German expressionists, and even the sadly underrated show Pushing Daisies. Unlike some other recent movies that shall remain nameless, this is real eye candy. The score was also a standout for me, featuring strangely out-of-tune and discordant strings. It’s dreamy, like the kind of wild, horny dream that you have after eating bad oysters (in a good way). You’re unlikely to hear anything like it anywhere else. All of these elements are brought together by Lanthimos’s inventive and idiosyncratic direction, making it perfectly balanced, which is rare for a film that’s this ambitious.
I won’t lie to you, Yorgos Lanthimos films are an acquired taste. Poor Things is bizarre, artsy, and has a lot of sex scenes, and if you’re not up for that, then it is not for you. But if you’re looking for something truly unique, you’re in for a treat. Thinking back through it while writing this review, I was reminded of all the weird little details and scenes that made me want to immediately watch it again after the credits rolled. I kinda loved it, and while there are still a few still left on my list to see, this might just be my favorite film of 2023.
Score: 10/10