Year: 2023
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Part 1 – What it is
It is a stunning visual trip where almost every frame would be worthy of saving to keep on your wall, whether it is set in Victorian London, the slums of Alexandria or a Parisian whorehouse.
It is an astonishing, committed, all-in central performance by Emma Stone as Bella Baxter.
It is the story of Bella Baxter, the brain of an unborn child transplanted into the skull of her suicide mother by the brilliant, if mad, surgeon Godwin ‘God’ Baxter.
It is the story of Bella’s accelerated sexual, linguistic and intellectual development from baby to adult woman.
It is film which some will dismiss based on sexual themes played out by a character with the mind of an infant. ‘What a pretty little retard!’, says God’s student assistant McCandless on first meeting Bella, before falling in love with her.
It is a film which will strongly split opinions. After seeing the film I saw a screen grab of Google Reviews where about 45% gave the film 5*, 40% gave it 1* and the small remainder were evenly split among the middling scores. Both The Guardian and the Daily Mail gave it 5* reviews, to the fury of the Mail’s readership (the Guardian weren’t allowing comments last I saw).
It is an outstanding, enthralling, captivating piece of cinema.
Part 2 – What it is not
It is not the book.
I haven’t read Alasdair Gray’s novel since it was published in the early 90s but I’ve pulled my copy from the shelves and added it to the to-be-read pile. My recollections may be hazy till refreshed. There is an excellent website for those who might want to explore the novel after seeing the film without committing to reading it – www.poorthingsnovel.com
In the book Bella’s story is presented as the diaries of Archibald McCandless (renamed Max McCandless in the film). Also presented is a covering letter from McCandless’ widow saying that she doubts any of the narrative is reliable and dismissing the diaries as her husband’s pornographic fantasies. The film presents the story as related by McCandless unchallenged. The imagery is dream-like throughout but there seems to be no doubt that what is presented is McCandless’ real view.
In the the novel, or at least the first edition, Bella is illustrated in a Mona Lisa pose, wearing a fine hat, and labelled as Bella Caledonia (in her letter McCandless’ widow says the portrait is of her). There is an argument that Bella is a metaphor for Scotland during the age of empire and Industrial Revolution, and that in relocating the story from Glasgow to London the essential message is lost. Incidentally, Willem Dafoe as God makes a decent fist of a Scottish accent, though it sounds more East coast than West.
Well, perhaps. I understand that Gray, who died in 2019, met and had some initial collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos. In his magisterial work Lanark Gray spared future scholars the trouble of identifying his sources by listing the works which he had stolen from (or as he put it collaborated with) in constructing his new world. Taking existing material and re spinning it into new and dazzling art is entirely in keeping with Gray’s own methods.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Anyone prepared to strap themselves in for a bumpy ride and out any spectator a to one side until it has finished
Heading to see it the morrow.
Well I crossed the Bridge of Eyes, really enjoyed it. A very visual feast and I loved the music.
May have another watch.
That final line should be ‘put any expectations to one side’. It was too late to edit by the time I noticed how garbled it had become.
Thanks for the review. I was interested in going to see this but had some doubts — you’ve convinced me.
Saw this the other day, and loved it, though the GLW was less taken: ‘Well, that was just WIERD’. Every frame looks absolutely fantastic and if you are taken in by the skewed world Yorgos Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan have created (and don’t mind copious amounts of sex and no little gore), you’ll have a blast.
Which is why I went on my own.
The Light wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t been so keen to see it but loved it even more than I did.
I saw this yesterday. I thought it was completely wonderful, though a lot of smart arses online have been pointing out the resemblance to “Frankenhooker.” Poor Things has the visual beauty of Powell and Pressberger alongside a central performance which even the young De Niro or Pacino would have been incapable of doing because they didn’t do fantasy fairy tale type of things. Emma Stone is genuinely better than I thought possible.
The only thing not mentioned which deserves to be is the “almost-as-good-as-Emma-Stone’s” performance from Mark Ruffalo. I usually like him in a “worthy but dull” way, but he’s excellent here; funny and pathetic, a man who slowly discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Everyone in this is great in fact, which shows you how good Emma Stone is, given that she definitely overshadows everyone.
Funny how quickly Ruffalo has morphed from Brando-seque dude to dowdy.
He is, as are Defoe as God and Ramy Yousef as the doe-eyed McCandless. I like your comparison to P+P too, the mix of colour with black and white, and the fantasy worlds which are treated as if they were the characters’ natural environment.
We ended up seeing this yesterday after intending to go and see Zone of Interest only to be told it was an ‘Unlimited members only’ screening. Our party lead had not read the small print. A complete hoot and Mark Ruffalo just alters the whole direction of the film on arrival, giving it the full Terry Thomas.
Yes Emma Stone, in virtually every shot, is wonderful.
There are a few issues with a third act that feels slightly rushed, hinging on the swift introduction and departure of a character unseen until three-quarters the way through the film, but overall a fantastic achievement. I loved The Lobster, thought The Favourite was fine without being blown away, and love the sheer sense of madness Lanthimos can bring to film-making.