Poor Things

In Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos presents a retro-futuristic atmosphere inspired by the work of Terry Gillam and Tim Burton. His alternate vision of Victorian London sets the stage to explore a world where the boundaries between life and death, as well as science and ethics, might be blurred and challenged. I was looking forward to an intelligent dissertation.

Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is a mad scientist who bears scars inside and out. Facially deformed, actor Willem Dafoe’s visage is a stitch of prosthetics. He’s a bit hard to look at. The doctor has crafted unholy alliances of animals walking about his estate. A goose/bulldog and a duck/goat are observed in all their CGI-ed glory. Despite Godwin’s sins against nature, the patriarch appears to mean well. Our florid fantasy begins after he retrieves the dead body of a pregnant woman who has just committed suicide. Victoria Blessington has recently jumped from a bridge into the water below. Dr. Godwin, or “god” as the renamed Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) calls him, reanimates her life using the brain of Bella’s unborn child.

Bella is a blank slate, an intellectual infant. Unencumbered by the rules and graces of society, she is far from a traditional woman. Screenwriter Tony McNamara — who adapted the 1992 novel by Alasdair Grey — extols this individual as a liberated woman who casts off the shackles of her male oppressors to live as openly as she sees fit. She thirsts for knowledge and wishes to be educated. Will she study astronomy, mathematics, poetry, or music? No, nothing scholarly at first. She is obsessed with carnal desires, that is, sexual pleasure, to have them freely, without restraint.

Bella paves (and depraves) her road to self-discovery with lusty pursuits. Ironically, we mainly discover Bella’s autonomy through various men. These include Godwin’s assistant, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), and former husband, Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott). Her pleasures of the flesh notably vexes one would-be suitor to no end. Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) is a debauched lawyer wholly undone by her moral abandon. Because she — like him — has embraced sex without compunction, we are invited to laugh at the hypocritical indignation of his corrupt personality. She seeks employment and housing. She meets Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter) who runs a French brothel. The fact Bella can practice what she enjoys and earn her own money is a bonus. This is progress?

Visually, Poor Things is a stunning work of art. The fish eye cinematography by Robbie Ryan alternatingly between black and white vs. color is a playful choice. Over an ocean voyage, the expansive sky brims with pastel colors that burst with a surreal beauty. Likewise, the costumes are luxurious creations. The fabrics and colors grow ever more elaborate, ranging from rich velvets and brocades to delicate lace and embroidered details as Bella’s confidence builds to defy societal norms. I’d love a coffee table book that celebrates the many facets of the movie’s steampunk style. The story is not one of them.

Poor Things is a derivative rewrite of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tale but with a gender-bending twist. Ah, but Frankenstein’s monster was a tragic figure, a cautionary warning against playing God. Here, the message is the exact opposite. Play God and create a woman who is free and unrestricted to use her body as she sees fit. The message of the author is clear: sexual repression is bad. Therefore, coming into your own as a woman is an uninhibited pursuit of sex. However, her “enlightened” odyssey becomes a one-trick pony. The director pounds the idea (quite literally, in fact) in scene after scene to the point of exhaustion. The nearly two-and-a-half hours runtime is — ahem — a grind. Bella ultimately grows tired of this behavior and pursues more academic interests, but not before the ubiquitous nudity has lost the power to shock, and the narrative tedium descends into monotony. Poor Things has a beautiful facade but an ugly soul.

12-26-23