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Poor Things
Ireland / UK / USA 2023
produced by Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone, Daniel Battsek (executive), Ollie Madden (executive) for Element Pictures, Channel 4, Fruit Tree, Walt Disney Productions (Searchlight Pictures), TSG Entertainment
directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Jack Barton, Kathryn Hunter, Charlie Hiscock, Vicki Pepperdine, Christopher Abbott, Attila Dobai, Jerrod Carmichael, Emma Hindle, Suzy Bemba, Anders Olof Grundberg, Attila Kecskeméthy, Hanna Schygulla, Keeley Forsyth, Mark Ruffalo, Jucimar Barbosa, John Locke, Carminho, Angela Paula Stander, Gustavo Gomes, Kate Handford, Owen Good, Zen Joshua Poisson, Vivienne Soan, Jerskin Fendrix, István Göz, Bruna Asdorian, Tamás Szabó Sipos, Tom Stourton, Margaret Qualley, Mascuud Dahir, Miles Jovian, Jeremy Wheeler, János Geréb, Patrick de Valette, Raphaël Thiéry, Boris Gillot, Dorina Kovacs, Yorgos Stefanakos, Hubert Benhamdine, Laurent Borel, Gábor Patay, Laurent Winkler, Andrew Hefler, Damien Bonnard, Noah Breton, Donovan Fouassier, Wayne Brett, David Bromley
screenplay by Tony McNamara, based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, music by Jerskin Fendrix
review by Mike Haberfelner
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London, somewhen in the Victorian age: Medicine student Max McCandles
(Ramy Youssef) is hired by his mentor, the gravely disfigured Dr. Godwin
Baxter (Willem Dafoe) to observe the progress of his latest experiment,
that "experiment" being the evolution of Bella (Emma Stone), who
when he first meets her has the body of an adult but the mind of a
two-year old - the result of her being a suicide victim and Baxter having
the brain of her unborn fetus transplanted into her head. Her progress
proves to be quite rapid as she appears to be a bright child, and one
that's hungry for knowledge. McCandles and Bella soon take a liking to one
another, and Baxter approves of this and pretty much pushes McCandles to
propose to Bella - which she gladly accepts. But enter Duncan Wedderburn
(Mark Ruffalo), whose man-of-the-world attitude interests her, and when he
persuades her to elope with him to Lisbon, she happily accepts - not out
of love, much less because she wants to hurt McCandles, whom she still
intends to marry, just out of curiosity. In Lisbon she has sex with
Wedderburn, something she clearly enjoys, but it doesn't evoke any
feelings for him in her while he by the by falls for her, despite
initially only having seen her as an adventure. Bella though is not at all
socially developed yet, and embarrasses Wedderburn again and again in
front of others, so much so that he on day packs her into a box and only
lets her out once they're on a cruise ship across the Mediterranean Sea.
Seeing her as his and his alone, Wedderburn doesn't like how she makes
friends with other passengeres, like elderly Lady von Kurtzroc (Hanna
Schygulla) and her young and cynic companion Harry (Jerrod Carmichael),
but by this time Wedderburn can no longer control her and instead seeks
solace in gambling and alcohol. Once in Alexandria, Harry shows Bella the
cruelty of humankind, exemplified in the slum right next to a posh tourist
spot, and to aleviate the pain of the slumdwellers a little, Bella takes
all of Wedderburn's money and donates it to the slum populace (even if
that money's unlikely to ever reach them). Out of funds, Bella and
Wedderburns are dropped off at the next port, Marseilles, and make it from
there to Paris, quite penniless. This is when Bella discovers
prostitution, and notices she enjoys it quite a bit, even if she
constantly makes suggestions to her whorehouse's madame (Kathryn Hunter)
how to improve the experience for the girls. This totally breaks
Wedderburn of course, and yet he's unable to give up on Bella. Bella
learns that Baxter is dying and returns to London, where she finds
McCandles still waiting for her, still willing to marry her even after he
finds out she was a prostitute and enjoyed it, too. In front of the altar
though, Wedderburn turns up with Alfie (Christopher Abbott), Bella's
husband before her suicide and subsequent brain surgery, who insists to
take her back - and even though she has no memories of him, she wills in,
out of pure curiosity ... Poor Things is an extremely
satisfying cinematic experience: On a pure visual level, the film is
almost overwhelming, marrying great set designs with sheer inventiveness
that quite a few times enjoyably crosses into the surreal and/or the
grotesque, all captured by lavish camerawork carried by a light-footed
direction. But this is not a film that's pure visuals as its plot about
female self-empowerment is multi-layered, intelligent, and asks questions,
but it is also witty, often funny, and at times intentionally silly to
keep the audience well-entertained throughout - to the point that there's
hardly (if at all) any length in the film's 140 minutes. And Emma Stone's
performance as the center of the plot is quite simply breath-taking, she
makes what could have easily become a cliché or a ham performance utterly
relatable, through a performance that's subtle and also utterly believable
- given that it takes quite a suspension of disbelief to accept her
backstory -, and she leads a rather wonderful ensemble cast. In all a very
unique movie, and an extremely enjoyable one.
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