Hey guys and gals. I’m still not back on full duties as yet, but I watched Poor Things the other day and wanted to share my thoughts about it.
Hollywood, at the moment, is boring. The superhero movie has now become oversaturated and dull. Most other things are prequels, which only tear apart beloved characters, *cough* Wonka *cough*, sequels or spin-offs.
It’s all become very bland, and predictable and not much comes out that you can get excited about.
Then something like Poor Things comes out and I was expecting it to be odd and interesting because of the director, Yorgos Lanthimos. His work is very, umm, odd to say the least, some of his previous movies include Dogtooth, The Lobster, Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite. I’ve seen Dogtooth and Killing of a Sacred Deer and I like them both.
They are, however, very strange movies, especially Dogtooth.
The Story
Poor Things is in the same bracket. An odd movie, but very interesting. It is like a fantasy take on Frankenstein, but deals with deeper things than the original book. The story is:
The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
The movie stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and Willem Dafoe. I know we don’t like Ruffalo, but bear with me, he is excellent in this and I actually liked his character.
We open with Bella, played by Stone, standing on the edge of a bridge about to end her life. She jumps and her body hurtles towards the icy cold depths, the movie starts with the end of Bella’s life.
Until that is, she was saved by Dr Godwin Baxter, played by Dafoe. When you first see him, he is covered with scars and obviously has had a hard life.
He is a scientist, and a brilliant surgeon, and has been able to bring Bella back to life. There is, however, a problem. Bella isn’t ‘right’.
Max McCandles, played by Yousef, is brought in to observe Bella and record her progress as she ‘gets better’. I won’t spoil the truth behind what has happened to Bella, but it is very interesting.
As Poor Things goes on, Max wants to marry Bella, but Godwin needs to keep her under lock and key, for her protection. A contract is drawn up, that a marriage can take place, but with strict legal contract, to keep her in place.
Enter Duncan Wedderburn, played by Ruffalo, a solicitor, who is intrigued by the contact and wonders what kind of a woman would be under such a bind.
He manages to meet Bella and decides he wants to take her away to Lisbon, Portugal against Max’s wishes, Godwin lets her go, so Duncan and Bella go off to explore the world.
The Script
There are some wonderfully funny moments, like how Bella discovers masturbation and how good it feels. Godwin’s housekeeper, Mrs Prim, is always grumpy, but Bella knows a way to make her happy and tries to grab her ‘hairy mound’.
Bella is simple, so she sees the world very simply and talks in a simple manner, like Kevin that one time in The Office.
Her dialogue is great, simple, and to the point, without hesitation speaking whatever is on her mind.
There’s a moment, in a beautiful ballroom, where Bella and Duncan are enjoying a meal. In the background, a baby is crying. Bella gets up saying:
I must go punch that baby.
It’s what we all think but dare not say in polite society.
Poor Thing
I started to feel for Duncan. He found Bella, just after she found out what masturbation is, cha-ching! He whisks her away for a whirlwind romance of exploring the world and a lot of sex.
Behind closed doors, there is a lot of sex. Outside of that, Bella does not know how to behave in polite society.
This leads to him getting to the point where he would quite happily throw her over the side of a ship, rather than deal with her simplistic view of life. It reminded me of a quote I heard a long time ago:
No matter how hot she is, somewhere there’s some poor guy dealing with her shit
This is a good part of the movie. In some respects, Bella is what every man could want, a good-looking lady who wants to spend all day in bed.
I know Ruffalo is a bit of a cock in real life, but his character here was one of the highlights of Poor Things.
Questions
The story of Bella is one layered with questions. Is it OK to lock someone up to protect them from the outside world? What is the difference between love and lust? Why is it, if a man sleeps around, he’s a legend, but if a woman sleeps around, she’s a whore?
These only scratches the surface of a few of the questions I was left with after watching Poor Things. I love this, thinking about a movie, long after it’s finished and still mulling things over in my head.
The style of the movie, with the visuals and the music, is really good. I say good, I really liked it, but I can’t see everyone liking it. There are shots which look like they were shot with a wide-angle GoPro, but they all worked.
It’s a very interesting style and the look of the entire movie reminded me of the style of Sin City, like it’s a play, one scene to the next.
Reading up about the movie, it was mostly shot on sound stages, with traditional painted sets. Visually, it’s a stunning movie.
I see Poor Things has been nominated for several Oscars, and I hope it wins some of them, it deserves it.
It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste, but for something different, that doesn’t have a group of women superheroes, it’s definitely worth a watch. Oh, and you see Stone’s boobs several times.
Poor Things is now on streaming.
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