Poor Things feels like someone wrote a normal sci-fi script and then they applied a “wacky” filter to it in every single aspect. Every silly little moment of this film is earned and justified in the quality of everything else around it. There are some films that I sometimes walk out of feeling like I had trouble connecting the message to what strangeness I may have seen on screen, for this, I was strapped in and locked down, in bewilderment of the bizarre.
Bella Baxter is a Frankenstein-esque monster in her amalgamation of adult and child. She experiences the world around her through mature eyes, finding the good, the bad and the ugly that exists in our world. Even through the outlandish concepts and locations, the issues and humanity of the film was completely comparable to our own. Issues like class, bodily autonomy and toxicity within relationships are all explored in zany ways with satisfying conclusions.
We begin our story in future old London, where Dr Godwin Baxter (Willam Defoe) and Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) currently live. We meet her at a time of infancy in her exploration and knowledge of the world, being confined to her space with a pretty freeing allowance to stomp around the house, break delftware and stab old dead men in the morgue. We see respect and admiration from Bella towards God, showing him affection without question of her being or origins. Not until Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) shows up does her progression push her desires outside the home. She begins to have an interest in exploring the world and seeing what it has to offer, all while also discovering self pleasure and “polite society”.
She is able to act on these newfound wants with the introduction of Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) who comes in as a contract lawyer in order to help iron out the details of Bella and Max’s soon to be marriage. He whisks her away to Lisbon, in search of sex and adventure. Initially, Bella is overwhelmed with the impulse for sex and the disappointment in the male design to not be able to keep up performances. While Duncan is in sexual recovery, Bella ventures out of the Portuguese hotel room to experience the culture, seeing a different vibrant sky to London and observing the everyday lives of the locals.
Duncan begins to feel that Bella’s adventures are stilting the growth of their relationship, taking matters into his own hands, playing on Bella’s excitement for adventure and thirst for new. From then on we watch a complicated and quirky take on a toxic relationship as a woman comes into her own, understanding more and more about the world, even the darker parts that she tries to change.
This film has a pretty cynical and negative view on the world and relationships, as the central “love” story in this film is one built upon the naivety of one being exploited and the desire to trophy someone around for their looks, without accepting who they are internally. Bella is not the most socially steady person, even physically at the beginning she has a few wobbles. Her straight talking nature is what makes her endearing, not coming from a place of malice with her words, but one of unconscious social etiquette. She has an unwavering yearning for new experiences, desperately searching for more to expand her mind, even at the cost of the ones around her. Bella has a casual view on commitment and loyalty, with a confidence in her own feelings towards others and an almost complete disregard for them towards her.
Emma Stone is so refreshing to watch in this film, fully watching her growth as a character to someone powerful and self assured by the end. She gains confidence in her ability to socialise, improving her use of language throughout.
This stilted and rudimentary use of language is so expertly put to page that we miss zero emotional connection through Bella’s initially limited vocabulary. She expresses herself in unconventional ways and uses basic sentence structure, but Emma Stone’s delivery and earnest performance gives so much weight behind the sparse words.
Mark Ruffalo is going full camp in his portrayal of Duncan, who is a real man’s man. He is unashamed to direct Bella’s behaviour and is self justified in his hard done by feelings when she has wants outside of their relationship. He is exaggerated and softly villainous, allowing us to laugh at him and his pathetic attempts at asserting dominance over Bella. He is bragadocious and money obsessed, unconcerned for those around him. Ruffalo captures all of these elements so perfectly, never pushing it too far so as he becomes plainly evil. There is a lightness that makes him a joy to watch every time he’s on screen.
Supporting performances from the likes of Willam Defoe, Ramy Youssef and notably Kathryn Hunter help to tie this film together, all interesting and silly in their own ways. They all give Bella more roundedness to her character, adding to her as a being and helping to shape her worldview.
The film runs on scale, playing with the environments in ways that aren’t there to be perfect and believable places. The majesty and grandeur of the sets are what push the sci-fi steampunk aesthetic to its max. Every sky has saturation 100% and every building has maximalist decor styles, with paintings, trinkets or drapery in every corner.
The camera is doing whatever it wants here, from fisheye to macro. We do the entire length and breadth of the lens range, none feeling out of place in the world of the film. We quickly get used to the style, which is very swiftly established and stiffly kept up for the entire runtime. The film also plays with colour, having the opening in black and white while Bella is in her youth of understanding, and then dazzling colour by the end, when she has more experiences under her corset.
The soundtrack of this film follows the theme of the rest, completely ridiculous, plucking out of tune strings and fiddling at every octave to set the unorthodox tone of the film while also keeping the lightness up. These songs are not thoughtless though, they all serve a purpose and this is seen in moments of true emotion, when the score develops some musical sense, making itself “right” for the world while we’re supposed to be feeling something.
There has been chitter and also, distinctly chatter online about the inclusion of sex in this film, and it being such a focal point of Bella’s journey. There is a lot of sex in this film. It never felt like excess to me though, with Bella learning more about herself and more about her body each time it happens. There is a nonchalant view on nudity established from the get go of this film, becoming very expected and not notable by the end. Bella has no emotions towards sex in this film, so why should we?
Clearly, big fan of this one, another uncanny valley entry from Yorgos Lanthimos and his growing list of features that make me overthink my own speech after walking out. Poor Things brings a unique and absurd take on a coming of age tale, with some very human themes weaved throughout. Initially worried I wouldn’t connect to the film, the remaining two hours put my mind at ease. I am satisfied and delighted by my final London Film Festival screening. Merci.
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