Poor Things (18)

Unorthodox scientist Dr Godwin Baxter reclaims the near-lifeless body of a pregnant woman, Victoria Blessington, from a river after she throws herself off a bridge. The madcap medic christens his Frankenstein-esque creation Bella and charts his ward's emotional and psychological development. Bella lavishes her affection on rakish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn and he spirits her away on a globe-trotting adventure, far removed from Baxter's tender care.

LondonNet Film Review

Poor Things (18) Film Review from LondonNet

An international dream team spearheaded by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara, Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan and American actress Emma Stone reunites after the Oscar-winning glory of The Favourite for a deranged coming-of-age fairy tale that lambasts the treatment of 19th-century women. Torn from the pages of Alasdair Gray’s novel, Poor Things introduces audiences to a fantastical medical experiment christened Bella Baxter. This unstoppable whirling dervish, portrayed with jaw-dropping gusto by Stone, has been bequeathed life by transplanting the mind of a child into an adult body…

McNamara’s deliciously biting and frequently hilarious script unleashes Bella on a sexually repressed Victorian-era society that believes women should be seen, admired but not heard. Unlike her peers, the film’s exuberant heroine isn’t suffocated by tightly corseted conventions of the period. Bella doesn’t comprehend self-censorship so when the piercing cries of a mewling infant disturb her calm, she doesn’t hesitate to voice her displeasure: “I must punch that baby!”

Stone’s fearless, virtuoso performance defies superlatives. She uses subtle changes in language fluency, posture and movement to illustrate her character’s white-knuckle joyride from infancy to maturity in artfully staged vignettes of impressive physical and verbal comedy. Full-frontal nudity becomes commonplace by the end credits. Mark Ruffalo demonstrates fine comic timing in support as a hedonistic, moustachioed dandy while Willem Dafoe’s Scottish accent (appropriated from Gray’s book) treks leisurely around the Celtic diaspora. Production design of gargantuan physical sets is ravishing while Ryan’s inventive camerawork captures lavish costumes in their glory, including sparing use of a fish-eye lens to amp up the wonderful weirdness.

Unorthodox scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (Dafoe) reclaims the near-lifeless body of a pregnant woman, Victoria Blessington (Stone), from a river after she throws herself off a bridge. The madcap medic christens his Frankenstein-esque creation Bella and charts his ward’s emotional and psychological development including the moment she discovers the art of self-pleasure with the aid of fruit. “Bella discover happy when she want,” she whoops. The scientist’s devoted student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), is bewitched by Bella and he assists Baxter in closely monitoring her interactions. Alas, Bella lavishes her affection on rakish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Ruffalo) and he spirits her away on a globe-trotting adventure, far removed from Baxter’s tender care.

Poor Things is tightly handcuffed to Stone’s extraordinary performance. She commits ferociously and wholeheartedly to her portrayal of wide-eyed innocence and richly deserves to join an elite club of two-time Oscar winners. Lanthimos’s impeccably furnished ship feels a little rudderless in the middle hour when Bella and Duncan take to the high seas but after the characters make land again, narrative thrust increases. Brilliantly and breathlessly bonkers but not for the faint of heart.

– Jo Planter