Hello everyone and welcome to late January. Winter is rolling along, and I hope everyone is still keeping warm and safe. This week’s selection is one that I didn’t think was going to happen. It had a limited release in theaters which means it wasn’t available in my area (because these sorts of movies never are), but with its recent Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, I was pleased to find out that “Poor Things” was playing at my local theater. So, lucky for you otherwise you would be getting ready to read my review of I.S.S. (which I have mixed emotions about after watching the trailer).
It’s hard to describe how excited I was to watch this movie. My love for Emma Stone’s body of work is boundless, actually, that will make a great top-ten list on this site at some point… but I digress. Having Stone along with Willem Defoe and Mark Ruffalo, I was on board from the start. But, before I begin it’s time for the obligatory warning of spoilers. I don’t want you to be a poor thing and get spoiled, so please watch and come back later if you don’t want to be. In the meantime, check out some of my other reviews here.
Ok, the next order of business is the fact that the trailer didn’t even show a fraction of what this movie was about. That’s not a bad thing, just wanted to throw it out there in case you are averse to sex scenes or other topics in a similar spectrum. After sitting through all 2+ hours of this, I have now seen more of Emma Stone than I ever thought I would. Mark Ruffalo too for that matter. Again, just trying not to bury the lead here. It didn’t take away from the movie, in fact, the Director Yorgos Lanthimos leaned into it and drove home the notion that a woman can do whatever they want with their body… at least that’s what I took from it.
In “Poor Things”, Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, who we find out actually has the brain of her own child in her head. Thanks to Dr. Godwin Baxter (played brilliantly by Willam Dafoe) who found her body in the river and was able to re-animate her back to life. It’s a bit of a process as she is a full-grown human with the brain of a child, but with the help of Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) whom Dr. Baxter hires is able to “raise” her and help train her and her infant’s brain.
Eventually, she “discovers” herself and shortly after Dr. Baxter decides that she and Max should marry, she decides to run off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) who was the person Baxter hired to create the wedding contract for her. After a short disagreement, he decides to let Bella go on the “adventure” with Duncan so she wouldn’t stay there and be mad at him. Both Baxter and Max miss Bella terribly and later decide to make a replacement.
As if Emma Stone’s acting in the first part of the film wasn’t great enough when she and Duncan set out and leave London, that’s when Bella (and Stone) begin to shine. As we see her navigate her life, she slowly begins to come into her own. Her walk straightens out, her vocabulary broadens, and she can communicate effectively without causing a scene. As she slowly gets better, Duncan slowly gets worse and worse driven to madness by his love for Bella. Not knowing her history, he struggles to understand why she does the things she does. Mark Ruffalo also shows off a bit of his acting chops as he tries to figure everything out.
Willem Dafoe also pulls out a fine acting job as well, playing the role of Dr. Godwin Baxter, I might add that this is a role that he was born to play. The scars on his face and the way he talks about his real father are truly terrifying. Speaking of terrifying, fantastic job on the soundtrack. I don’t think there was single song played throughout, just the creepy organ music and sound effects. Honestly, though, that really enhanced the viewing experience for me.
Finally, after Bella escapes away from Duncan (After stealing his money and “giving it to the less fortunate”) she discovers her love of being a prostitute, she gets to do what she loves and get paid for it. While all this is happening, she is growing, reading, and getting smarter as she grows into her brain. Eventually, Duncan tries to come crawling back to her and she happily pushes him away. It was satisfying to see her become her own woman and be able to thrive on her own. Even when she returns home to spend time with Dr. Baxter before he dies, she makes a little detour to see what her old life was like when she was Victoria. Once again has to “escape” from being trapped and ends up back at home again where she finally ends up with Max.
Overall, the acting is what carried this movie. This was Emma Stone’s movie through and through, with Ruffalo and Dafoe playing supporting roles as such. Since it was her movie, she did her job well and carried the movie on her shoulders… even if they were mostly bare. The story itself jumped from time to time without ever an indication of how much time was progressing. We can make our assumptions here for how much time is progressing, but that doesn’t matter, nor does it affect the outcome of what happens. The acting, along with the music, and the cinematography puts this movie squarely at an 8 out of 10.
The visuals along make this worth watching on the big screen if it’s available to you before it’s gone.
