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★★★★★
Poor Things comes out of the gate in 2024 as one of the most off-kilter, flamboyant, and visceral film experiences of the decade - if not this century. In this latest film from acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos, you will see a whole lot more than you were probably bargaining for, with wildly exhilarating performances and sharp writing; all set across the backdrop of a pungent, freakish, and eye-popping Victorian Steampunk landscape. What does this actually mean - what is Poor Things about, and is it worth seeing for yourself?
If you’ve seen any trailers, posters, or clips from this film, then you might already have an idea of why this movie is so difficult to truly capture in a sentence or two. Ultimately, it’s a story of self-discovery, innocence lost, and adventure; as we follow Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter on a journey that is at times bleak, uncompromising, unsettling, but also hilarious, affirming, and fairly inspirational.
The plot is, quite frankly, bizarre. At the onset, we meet Willem Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter in London; a hideously-scarred surgeon, with a penchant for curating Chimeras and experimenting on the dead. Through the eyes of Ramy Youssef’s Max (Godwin’s new lab assistant), we are introduced to the mad scientist’s latest experiment - a strange, simple-minded woman called Bella. In the early stages of the film, we see Bella as having the mind and mannerisms of a toddler, spending most of her time locked away in the laboratory and yearning to explore the outside world. On that note, the “outside world” here is some kind of strange reimagining of ours; filled with stodgy, pastel colours and fantastical steampunk technology, set alongside gothic, Victorian-era architecture and aesthetics.
The first twist of the movie comes fairly early. Max becomes very taken with Bella, and upon further inspection discovers her to actually, quite literally, be a…baby. Godwin admits to finding Bella’s pregnant body floating in the Thames - and like any good doctor would, proceeds to swap the still-alive baby’s brain into Bella’s body; saving the child, and resulting in a Frankenstein’s monster situation. Thus explaining Bella’s very limited mind and juvenile behaviour. Honestly, it’s a lot to take in, but the way the film just unapologetically ploughs right into this left turn and proceeds as though it’s completely normal, is oddly endearing and kind of inspirational. It’s a stupid idea for a story, really - the type of thing that Karl Pilkington would come up with on the spot in an XFM podcast, but in combination with the confident direction, pacing and stellar worldbuilding, it works flawlessly.
The plot strides into fairly uncomfortable territory next. While this has been going on, Bella herself has been maturing at a surprising rate, going through what could only be described as a speedrun of puberty, and experiencing a strong, sexual awakening. Initially pledging to marry Max, she quickly falls victim to the charms of Mark Ruffalo’s debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn and runs away with him. From here, the film unfolds as a kind of oddball odyssey, with the pair travelling all across Europe while Bella matures more and more, learning about philosophy, love, and sex, and discovering just how she fits into this strange world around her. Without providing a blow-by-blow account of the plot, that’s pretty much Poor Things. And it’s incredible.
The place to start when selling this movie is with Emma Stone’s performance as Bella Baxter, which is nothing short of sensational. In my humble opinion, she’s a shoe-in for Best Actress at the Oscars. The physical and emotional demands of this role are kind of ridiculous; Stone has to manoeuvre between scenes with entirely different motifs, from the wide-eyed, marionette-esque movements of a juvenile trapped in a woman’s body in one breath, to cutting quips and hilarious one-liners, to literally bearing all in some of the most committed sexual scenes you’re likely to see in a mainstream film. Bella is a character that is emotionally, physically, philosophically, and sexually transforming on a delicate curve throughout the film, so to represent that so perfectly must have taken an extraordinary amount of dedication and talent. Without Stone’s performance being pitch perfect, this film would have fallen flat on its weird face. Instead, it soars.
After all, the story being told at face value is very strange, and easy to dismiss as being “weird for the sake of weird”, or even off putting through a more shallow lens. Stone’s performance, as well as the performances of all of the supporting cast, have to sell you on believing and caring for the emotional journey of woman with the child of a brain, exploring a silly steampunk world, having an increasingly brazen amount of sex, and engaging in a crash course of the female experience - while very bluntly discovering that, actually, the outside world is mostly not nice at all, unfair, and predatory. That the film accomplishes this so successfully is very admirable, and is also what makes this film one that has stuck in my head long after seeing it. I can’t think of many movies that are as bold and brazen with their ideas, story beats, performances, and visuals as Poor Things is.
Yorgos Lanthimos is a director known for producing some very arresting pieces of cinema (e.g. The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite), with a fair number of jarring and unique techniques that you won’t see very often at all. He uses this impressive toolkit to great effect in Poor Things. As weird a story as Poor Things is, Lanthimos anchors us almost entirely in the perspective of Bella, allowing us to view this madcap world through the eyes of the protagonist, in a way that lets the viewer instantly buy into everything on display. The world shifts from murky, black and white filters and distorted fisheye lenses, to explosions of vibrant colours, sounds, and sights. As Bella grows and develops, the world around matches her progress - fluidly darting between absurdist imagery, drab and muddied tones, and eventually a greater sense of realism. By the end of the film, the wacky world of Poor Things makes complete sense to Bella - and Lanthimos makes sure that it does for us, too.
A quick word on the supporting cast; to a man, they’re fantastic. If there’s one word I’d use to describe the acting on display, it would be committed. With Willem Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter, with his hideously scarred visage and gruff Scottish accent, you get a character that is equal parts frightening, and harsh, but also warm, and endearing. Mark Ruffalo is a bonafide scene-stealer too, playing very much against type with his manic, immature, sex-crazed and completely debauched Duncan Wedderburn. Every character, even the most minor of supporting roles, is memorable and completely in service to the story, the tone, and the themes. There isn’t a single weak link in the cast, and when the world itself has such a strong personality and rhythm to it, there is quite literally never a dull moment from front to back.
A huge amount of praise needs to be laden on the production team, too. Everything from the costumes, to the set designs, to the sound design (and especially the score) perfectly aligns with the tone, pace, and nature of the story being told. The world of Poor Things is many things at once; intoxicatingly bizarre, often gloomy and malevolent, but always colourful, engrossing, and near mesmeric in its presentation. The overall look and feel of the world of this movie is completely unique, and the fact that the many idiosyncrasies and wacky elements of Poor Things can be taken entirely at face value, without any of the storytelling losing any sense of momentum or poise, is nothing short of a filmmaking miracle. And a lot of this is down to the stellar work of the production team.
My final point, and one that you might be surprised to hear me make - Poor Things is so goddamned funny it’s unbelievable. While it’s definitely been marketed and presented as a dark comedy, I was not expecting to laugh as much as I did during the runtime. There's the “kids say the darndest things” approach to comedy, watching Bella in her adolescence roast the ever-living shit out of everyone around her. The physical comedy chops displayed by Stone and Ruffalo in their many, many (many) confronting sex scenes and arguments. Ruffalo himself just being an absolute bundle of joyous Victorian f***boy energy. Every single character has at least three genuinely funny lines - Bella and Duncan have about fifty.
Ultimately, I can imagine Poor Things dividing opinion amongst the average moviegoer. Not in the sense that it’s an “elevated” piece of art, a pretentious piece of fluff that’s above the paygrade of a normie. If anything, Poor Things is a very simple film. It wears its ideas very obviously on its sleeve. The themes of patriarchal authority, sexual liberation, and freedom are hard (dare I say impossible) to miss. The storytelling and the machinations of the plot are delivered so bluntly it's almost comical. It really is a simple story, but one with a garish coat of paint that may put some off - there’s no getting around the fact that Poor Things is a very strange, and at times uncomfortable, thing to sit through.
But I firmly believe that, so long as you open your mind to the weirdness, and allow the story to sweep you off your feet, you’ll find it hard not to love Bella and the adventure she goes on. This is a moving, striking, hilarious, and poignant film - with a huge amount of heart, and enough accomplished filmmaking to make a Kubrick fan blush. This is easily one of the best films I’ve seen in a long, long time, and one that I have to thoroughly recommend!
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