Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things tells the story of a young woman who died, was brought back to life, and started her journey of discovery from the beginning (but as an adult). Revived by mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), Bella (Emma Stone) is studied closely as a seemingly successful experiment after she had the brain of her baby set in place of her own so she may live again. In an adult body and having to restart life from scratch, Dr. Baxter keeps a sharp eye on Bella, constantly studying her behaviors and rarely letting her see the outside world.
Poor Things is a film that will divide audiences and critics alike right down the middle. You’re either going to love this film or you’re going to hate it. While I’m not a fan of the film, it bears a few attractive qualities that I’d be remiss to withhold.
It seems to take place in Victorian-era Europe but the setting feels more like steampunk. While the first part of the film is black and white, the latter is rich with bright colors. Once Bella escapes with shaky attorney Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) out to sea, the skies are bright and colorful while the water reflects the same. Ruffalo delivers spats of humor with his quick wit and brazen approach to life and love. Willem Dafoe has his moments of humor as well but that humor is usually crude and somewhat unusual. The environment at his house feels very much like Frankenstein meets Edward Scissorhands, with numerous odd sightings and happenings taking place.
As for a simple summation, this is the wildest movie I’ve ever seen in my life. The logline from the studios was very misleading… very. Nothing prepared me for how far they would stretch certain buzzwords. Here, “liberating” and “equality” are tossed around quite liberally. Often when there’s a female lead, the term “liberating” is just a free pass for gratuitous sex. It was too much. During the 141 minutes that you’re forced to experience this “art”, you’ll see Bella discover what sex is and how she experiments with pretty much everything (starting with masturbation at the breakfast table). Aside from seeing which types of fruit she can stuff herself with, Emma Watson is naked for probably 30% of the film. The extended sex scenes with Mark Ruffalo were both odd and unnecessary. Much later, she begins working at a brothel where she sleeps with a whole host of takers (which they show) and eventually finds pleasure with another woman. The way that everything was executed didn’t feel like it was artistic or liberating, let alone needed. If anything, this was feminine freedom from a man’s perspective.
The equality piece of this buzzword gumbo comes much later in the film. It’s introduced as an attachment to sex but they try to clean it up by having Bella conscious of those less fortunate. During her short stint in France, she argues that women should be able to choose who they sleep with and not the other way around. Outside of that and siding with the less fortunate, the “equality” portion is a bit of a stretch. But you’ll have time to think about all of these things since the film drags in countless places and runs about 40 minutes too long.
Hollywood has had its scope set on Christianity this year as major projects have gone out of their way to either attack Christianity, mock the idea of having a God, or both. Here, it starts as wordplay because the scientist’s name is Godwin. But very soon after, she starts addressing Godwin as if he is god which gradually sparks a downward trending monologue about how there is no god and pushes science in the direction of being the soul changemaker and answer to life. Each time I’ve seen these deep dives into attacking God or even the belief that a “god” could exist, it’s had absolutely nothing to do with the plot. It’s a weird entertainment industry obsession that’s always oddly placed and almost always comes in the form of a rant.
Poor Things gets a distasteful 4 out of 10. When the film Titanic debuted in 1997, the industry urged adults to bring their children to see it even though it had nudity. The reason? Art. A naked woman having a portrait painted of herself is a textbook example of art. It’s understood that the term means something different to everyone, but just so you know, what’s being portrayed as “art” here is not even in the same atmosphere as Titanic. This absolutely should not be viewed by children (with or without parents) under the guise of art or otherwise and should have people questioning what defines a film as rated R.
Poor Things is in select theaters now with a wider release planned for Friday, Dec. 22.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures