Poor Things (2023)

The internal values set of Poor Things is a bit of a moving target, much like Emma Stone's Bella Baxter in the film. The film offers interesting commentary but sometimes reveals troubling or contradictory values.

The film has some visual strengths, such as the use of black and white and color sequences to chart Bella's journey. Costumes succeed in conveying a certain social order, one where Bella is treated as a carefully adorned object.

However, the world of Poor Things as envisioned by Yorgos Lanthimos does not effectively sell itself. Physical sets feel highly artificial and compacted when, based on the tone of the scenes, they are meant to evoke a feeling of openness, wonder or adventure. The CGI surroundings miss any meaningful stylistic benchmarks, and mostly look like bad screen savers.

The film explores an unspoken experiment: how to make the "perfect," compliant, beautiful, and trained female. Godwin, played by Willem Dafoe, frames this as the pure pursuit of science born out of a charitable act on his part. Still, even when Bella leaves Godwin, he persists in creating Felicity who is basically Bella 2.0.

Duncan (Mark Ruffalo) and Max (Ramy Youseef) add interesting dynamics. A system of men grows around Bella, each one trying to "liberate" her from one of the others. Godwin attempts to imprison Bella; Max tries to raise her, but really grooms her; and Duncan capitalizes on her youthful spirit for his own pleasure. With Godwin and Duncan, a clear pattern emerges: the enforcement of an absolute behavioural regime on Bella.

The film also explores the dark male thoughts surrounding a creation like Bella. Godwin proposes that Max marry Bella (when she still has the mind of a child) because, as he describes it, "my paternal feelings seem to outweigh my sexual thoughts". He says this casually, with no understanding of the many continents that should separate those mental spaces. Duncan also remarks that he prefers when Bella speaks as a child and chides her for reading books.

A dual asymmetry arises later in the film. Bella remains partially handicapped in terms of her practical and emotional understanding of the world, which puts her at a disadvantage. However, the tables begin to turn when Bella's emotional detachment from the males in her life becomes an asset, creating its own dimension of asymmetry and giving her power she did not have before.

The film possesses a strange depiction of sex work. In fact, what seems to start as an examination shifts to endorsement, until high-volume sex work is treated as an essential part of our character's journey. This would be more compelling if the film did less to try to soften the edges of the profession or frame Bella as "improving" upon the practice. It is also interesting that, as above, asymmetric relationships are explored extensively elsewhere but the film makes only a paltry effort to apply this to sex work, glossing over the well-documented realities of that world. The commentary is clear but it clashes with reality rather than meshing with it. It seems a romanticization of sex work rather than a realistic, neutral or meaningful depiction.

The last twenty minutes serve a purpose, but don't work from a pacing perspective. When the original husband appears, it starts to feel like we're watching a mini-series and we've wandered into the next episode.

Other parts of the ending offer mixed messaging. Max, who absolutely groomed Bella, is framed as a male ideal: deferential, accepting, willing to share his wife, and a known participant in the experiments that produced both Bella and Felicity. The exact calculus by which he is treated as an admirable character is unclear.

The film's greatest downfall is a lack of fidelity to a very key aspect of the story in the source material. The source dispels the notion that Bella was ever a helpless child; we had simply received a bad account of events from her ex-husband. This is a powerful statement, as all the other commentary is allowed to stand, but on top of it Bella's situation is recontextualized, greatly acknowledging her inherent capability and agency. She was just also despised by a man who went on to tell lies about her.

A bit of a visual jumble and peculiar in its depiction of Bella's journey, Poor Things will best be enjoyed by established Yorgos Lanthimos fans.