To write that the films of Eurocentric director Yorgos Lanthimos are an acquired taste is an understatement. His movies are not for everybody. His most accessible film is assuredly “The Favourite,” which was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including for best picture and director, and received one for lead actress for Olivia Colman, who played Queen Anne of England. Also earning an Oscar nomination for the film was Emma Stone for supporting actress.
Stone, who won her own best actress Academy Award for “La La Land,” also appears in a short film by Lanthimos, which is titled “Bleat.” She is now starring as Bella Baxter in the director’s “Poor Things,” which is playing in theaters. If you thought “The Favourite” was strange (the Queen’s weird rabbit fetish, for example – 17 pet bunnies, one for each child Anne lost), you haven’t seen anything yet. By the way, this was an animal flourish that was not historically accurate.
“Poor Things,” a darkly comic scientific fantasy, is based on the award-winning, deliciously bizarre 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray. The book’s full title is “Poor Things: Episodes From The Early Life Of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer.” The movie, which is strictly for mature audiences, celebrates the Victorian Era’s fascination with the surgical manipulation of human bodies from an experimental medicine standpoint. If you’re thinking about Dr. Frankenstein, you’re correct.
At the start of the film, Ms. Baxter commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. However, she lives on in the guise of her unborn child, because a true mad scientist – Dr. Godwin Baxter – swiftly takes Bella’s body from the frigid water and removes the baby’s brain. He then performs surgery on the deceased Bella and swaps her dead brain for the fetus’s still viable brain. A perfect Willem Dafoe is the doctor. His face looks like a puzzle of stitched-together trapezoidal shapes of flesh. He keeps extensive notes on all of his experiments, an important factor that is central to the story. How and why Bella got to the bridge will be answered eventually.
This early section of the movie takes place in black and white. It allows us to watch Bella as both a baby and a toddler with an adult body. Her interactions with Dr. Baxter, whom she calls “God,” are often cumbersome and giddy. As the film progresses, and shifts to color, she will mentally and emotionally grow from her comically awkward childhood to a fiercely determined period as an adult. Her very clever goal is clearly liberation from the trappings of the men she encounters during this journey of rejuvenation.
It’s Bella’s journey in “Poor Things” that has divided audiences. Mixed in with the weird comedy are uncomfortable scenes of physical abuse and other acts of violence, as well as stark sexual situations. Lanthimos and his screenwriter, Tony McNamara have Bella traveling to important world cities: Paris, Lisbon and Alexandria in Egypt are three of her stops. All of them are enchanting interpretations of what is known about them. People usually move throughout the cities in fanciful sky-mobiles.
It’s in Paris that Bella turns to prostitution after her extended romantic liaison with a lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn leaves her broke and willingly alone. She chooses sex over control by Wedderburn, who’s gone a bit bonkers. Mark Ruffalo is wildly over-the-top as the lawyer. I found his performance to be jarringly inconsistent.
During the trips, we can’t forget that back at the Victorian laboratory, Bella has a pleasant young man in love with her. She had already agreed to marry Dr. Baxter’s student assistant, Max McCandles, sweetly played by Ramy Youssef. He’s obsessed with her but is willing to give her some breathing room so she can think ahead to where she sees herself in life.
On one of her colorful adventures, Bella is aboard a fantastical ocean liner that is best described as looking like a seagoing cityscape wedding cake. It’s on the ship that she meets Martha, an older liberated woman, played by the legendary actress Hanna Schygulla – a 1960s and 1970s German New Wave superstar, whose potent wisdom and warm honesty thrills Bella. Her delight is enhanced by the fact that Martha is traveling with Harry, a young, gay black man, who is nicely acted by American comedian Jerrod Carmichael. Bella’s mind and eyes are opened by this traveling twosome even more than she thought possible.
“Poor Things” is not only an expressive meal for the mind, it’s also one of the most spectacularly beautiful and visually imaginative films I’ve seen. Lanthimos may be the director, but in truth, it’s a foursome that has given audiences a true feast for the eyes. The other three major contributors are cinematographer Robbie Ryan and production designers Shona Heath and James Price. Ryan offers up moments of stunning jaw-dropping beauty. Heath and Price have created a staggering physical world of thrilling surreal fantasies for the eyes. Add the art direction, costumes and props to the mix, and you have a movie that would be worth seeing even if it were a silent picture with only musical accompaniment.
Additionally, there are interesting faces to look at in “Poor Things,” which comprise a magnificent almanac of on-screen personalities. The brothel’s madam is the best among many. An alluring chorus of unique voices also adds luster to the experience.
As Bella, Stone gives her all. She is the quintessential touchstone for what is known as “daring” in motion picture studio conference rooms. There are moments when the 141-minute movie finds itself rubbing shoulders with the work of two famed directors, who’ve danced with the same material. Hints of James Whale’s 1931 masterpiece, “Frankenstein,” and Tod Browning’s 1932 classic, “Freaks,” are readily apparent, and they are clearly being paid tribute to by Lanthimos.
“Poor Things” flags a little bit here and there due to some repetition of established points and expository moments, but it quickly recovers. If you start to drift, just look at any corner of the screen and let the dazzling imagery energize your senses. It worked for me.