Poor Things

General spoiler warning for this review

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is doing some of the most interesting work in film today. Of his work, I've seen Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite, and Poor Things and even though there are some I love more than others, every one of them is undeniably unique and fascinating.

His films take place in realities that feel adjacent to ours. They are worlds in which a teenager can magically kill an entire family just by wishing it so (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), in which being single is illegal and people who don't find partners within a set period of time will be transformed into an animal of their choosing (The Lobster), and in which a man can take the brain of an infant and transplant it into the body of a dead woman and re-animate her (Poor Things). 

What Lanthimos is really doing is holding up a mirror. His films question why we willingly accept societal expectations that don't serve us. His films are also all about domination and submission: why do we submit to others and to society? Why do we seize control through domination? 

Poor Things seems like the pinnacle of Lanthimos' work. The film takes place in a version of Victorian London. I say a "version" of Victorian London because things that cannot be simply are in this world: a surgeon, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), discovers the body of a pregnant woman who has just jumped off a bridge in an attempt to end her life. Baxter removes the nearly-ripe fetus and transplants its brain into the head of the woman and re-animates her. He names her "Bella" and treats her as a daughter. 

The film opens with Bella Baxter (Emma Stone in a career-defining role) in an immensely childlike state. She walks around without bending her knees, she called Godwin "God", she pees on the floor and smiles, and she can string a couple words together at a time. Godwin hires medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to observe Bella and help her grow and learn. She does. She begins talking in sentences (albeit broken ones), she learns to catch a ball, and her gait improves. But she is still impulsive as a child and therefore Godwin feels the need to keep her inside and away from a dangerous world.

Then, Bella discovers masturbation.

I went into Poor Things fairly blind, knowing only that it was a sort of steampunk, feminist take on Frankenstein. I did not know, and was delighted to find out, just how much of a sexual awakening movie this is. Around the time Bella learns how to "make Bella happy anytime", Godwin encourages Max and Bella to get engaged. He hires lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, in an unforgettable and hilarious role) to draw up a contract and Wedderburn, the definition of a "cad", seeks out Bella and immediately attempts to seduce her. He invites her on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal and Bella tells Godwin and Max that she needs to go with Duncan and, basically, get her brains fucked out and see the world before she settles down with Max. Godwin decides to let her go.

While Duncan is at first delighted to have a woman whose sexual appetite is insatiable, he is very annoyed at her lack of social graces and her seeming ability to separate sex and love. Although Duncan warned Bella to not fall in love with him, it is he who falls "in love" (more like "in jealousy") with her. He basically kidnaps her and puts her on a cruise ship so that she can't just leave him the way she can in Lisbon. On the ship Bella meets two passengers: nihilistic Harry (Jerrod Carmichael) and wise older woman Martha (Hanna Schygulla) and starts reading philosophy and caring about helping the poor. This drives Duncan to his wits end. He "loved" Bella when she was a horny, wide-eyed naif, but now that she is reading and having thoughts and opinions, he is done with her. 

When the two end up in Paris with no money, Bella makes the practical decision to become a whore. She also ends up learning about socialism and that even bad experiences (such as fucking an ugly, smelly man) can make her life more whole and deep. Duncan, of course, is furious and Bella doesn't understand why. She happily lives life in a brothel, spending her spare time reading, auditing anatomy classes, and going to socialist meetings. That's when she gets the news that Godwin is terminally ill. She travels home to see him and he finally reveals how he created her.

Max is still there, working as Godwin's assistant. And he still loves Bella. He doesn't care that she was a sex worker. He wants her to be herself. The two agree to go forward with the wedding, but at the last minute, Duncan shows up with a nasty surprise: one Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott), Bella's husband from the time before she killed herself. Despite Godwin begging her not to go (Max, ever a true believer in the philosophy of "if you love someone, let them go", lets Bella go), Bella chooses to leave with Alfie. Mostly because she is curious about the woman she was before she was Bella Baxter: Victoria Blessington. 

She quickly finds out why her former self wanted to die. Alfie keeps Bella prisoner in his enormous house. He torments the servants and laughs at their suffering. And Bella overhears him planning with a doctor to sedate her and give her a clitoridectomy. Bella now understands why Victoria wanted to die...and she's prepared to make the same choice. In a standoff, she throws a drugged martini in Alfie's face and he ends up shooting himself in the foot and passing out. She drags his body back to Godwin's, where she and Max replace Alfie's brain with that of a goat: "he can be improved", Bella says, ever the optimist.

The films ends with Bella living happily with both Max and Toinette (Suzy Bemba), her prostitute friend/lover who got her into socialism, carrying on the legacy of Godwin's work. Bella, the "Frankenstein's Monster" of Godwin's, is finally whole: a sexual, intelligent woman who loves cocktails, reading, socialism, and cunnilingus. Fin.

So, clearly Poor Things is a feminist tale, as Bella stubbornly steps out of the grasp of the various men who want to contain and control her: she is given life by Godwin and he loves her, but he is overly protective. She is given sex by Duncan, but he is pissed that she wants to have sex with other men as well. She is given a reality check by Harry, the nihilistic philosopher, who shows her what suffering looks like and tells her that no one can change the world, but Bella rejects this. She is given the truth of her life before Bella by Alfie, but he wants to mutilate her to bend her to his will. She is also given things by women: Martha gives her philosophy books, the Madame at the whorehouse gives her a practical perspective on work and life, and Toinette introduces her to socialism and lesbianism, both of which Bella takes a liking to. But the women don't try to control her or capture her like the men do. The only man who seems to truly not want to control Bella is Max, and while it's unclear whether the two end up in a romantic partnership or strictly scientific partnership, he is still there with her at the end. 

Poor Things is also a humanist tale because everything the film espouses--that love is not ownership, that both body and mind deserve to be liberated, and that people CAN grow, learn, and change for the better--can be applied to all people, not just women. Although these truths are perhaps more profound when viewed through the lens of a woman who has not yet learned to be ashamed of her womanhood, they are truths that are relevant and important for all genders to learn. 

Although much of the film is about Bella's sexuality (after all, the biggest, baddest villain of the movie wants to divest Bella of her clitoris), it's also about Bella's mind--and her heart. She comes to understand that while life if full of suffering and we can't end everyone's suffering, we *can* make a difference and we *can* improve as individuals. In spite of Lanthimos' dark, twisted tendencies as a director, he has created a very optimistic piece of art here.

And what art it is! I haven't even mentioned the eye-popping, gorgeous cinematography, the unique and creepy soundtrack, the over-the-top costumes, and the acting. Oh, the acting. Stone and Ruffalo are clear standouts, but everyone is amazing here. 

Poor Things is a movie where every frame is beautiful, every scene is funny or interesting, and the movie is just a pleasure and joy for its entire runtime--plus, you'll be thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. Finally, I watched a movie in 2023, that I can, with no hesitation, give this grade to:

Grade: A+