Here’s a fun fact: I was supposed to see Poor Things months before it came out, as I was covering the New York Film Festival as a critic for my outlet, which meant I was attending the press screenings for about a week or so.
That said, when I ventured outside of Brooklyn one early morning to go see May December and Poor Things in a double feature, we got a historic flood.
I did not make it to either screening, texted my editor immediately I was stranded in a flooding subway station, and then waded home in a massive river in order to not be in said subway station. Probably a dumb move, but for the next few months I silently sighed every time I got a Poor Things trailer in movie theaters.
So when it finally came out, I decided it was going to be my last film of 2023. My sister wanted to go, and the poor soul had no idea what a Lanthimos film entailed. We both were going in kind of blind outside of the trailer, but I at least was familiar with the director’s work and expected something wacky.
I was right. Of course I was right. Some people walked out of my screening, which entertained me, including the group of high school girls who’d obviously snuck in and were loudly talking through an entire two scenes.
Let’s get into the review!
A young woman is resurrected with a childlike mind, then discovers what the world has in store for her as a woman.
We begin Poor Things with this scene: a young woman in a dress, who we later know as Bella, kills herself by jumping off of a bridge. We don’t know why she did this, but we’ll learn more about the act and its aftermaths later in the film.
The scene is Victorian London. A medical student, Max, earns an assistant spot to the surgeon Godwin, who is a bit of an eccentric figure. When he arrives at the mansion Godwin lives inside, he meets Bella, who has the body of a grown woman but acts like a child.
Godwin tells him that she was once known as Victoria, and she was the woman who jumped off of the bridge. Godwin found the body, still warm, and learns she was pregnant. He took the fetus’s brain and then puts it inside of the mind of the dead woman, and she wakes up from death with the mind of a child, hence why she walks and talks like she’s two.
Godwin ends up agreeing to Max’s ask, a little bit later, to marry Bella. But as Bella accepts and grows quickly mentally, she begins to experiment sexually, putting things inside of her and even fingering herself at the dinner table. She wants to know more about the world beyond the home, as she’s not allowed outside.
When a lawyer, Duncan, meets her and convinces her to go on a journey, she decides to go off with him, much to Godwin’s chagrin. In Bella’s absence, he creates another woman like her: Felicity.
Duncan and Bella head off to Portugal, having an intense amount of sex wherever they go. As Bella becomes more conscious of the world, leaving Duncan to explore and meet other people, he tells her to close her eyes. He takes her onto a cruise ship, where she literally cannot escape him. She befriends two other people, though, who give her philosophy books.
Bella starts debating everything, including Duncan’s sometimes idiotic demands, and becomes more independent. When he gambles and wins a ton of money, she discovers in Alexandria the poor. She gives all of his money to the cruise workers, who steal it, but it gets them kicked off of the ship because he has a ton of debt.
When they arrive in Paris, Bella reveals she had money this entire time, which Godwin had given to her. Duncan yells at her and steals it, and to survive Bella works at a brothel.
Duncan has a breakdown, and Bella ignores him when he visits. She discovers not all sex is enjoyable, and through another prostitute, she discovers the concept of socialism.
Meanwhile, back in England, Godwin is deathly ill. He cannot fix himself, so he tells Max to go find Bella.
He does just that after talking to Duncan, who lives inside of a mental hospital, and tells Bella what’s happening. She comes home, has some honest talks with Godwin, and even decides to marry Max again.
But we have a final plot twist! At the altar, Duncan shows up with General Alfie, who is Victoria’s husband. He demands Bella come with him under the premise they were married before she vanished, and she leaves Max behind in order to learn about her life. However, Alfie is a terrible person, as she learns quickly at their first dinner together.
She also realizes that she killed herself to get away from him, and he locks her inside of the mansion with no way to communicate to anyone. The next step is this: he wants to mutilate her genitals, and tries to get her to drink a sedative, which she promptly throws at his face.
The two keep fighting, and Alfie shoots himself in the foot before the sedative kicks in.
Bella returns home, where Godwin dies, and she ends up taking his practice with Max and her prostitute friend. Together, they end up transplanting a goat brain into Alfie’s head, and they allow Felicity the chance to shine slowly but surely.
Overall Thoughts
Here are some of my favorite parts of Poor Things: the production and costume design. The movie is absolutely stunning when it comes to how the world of the movie comes to life through the elements that are often overlooked, making them some of the defining parts of the film.
Those dresses are gorgeous, and so is Emma Stone’s acting. I have not seen Killers of the Flower Moon (although I read the book several years ago), so I can’t vouch for Lily Gladstone, but I think that Emma Stone gave an Oscar worthy performance in a competitive year.
What I’m really torn about, though, is calling this a feminist film. There are some moments that I can really see these moments shine through, but it also does a really specific job of sexualizing Bella when she’s in her preteen phase.
It came across to me as something that felt male gaze like and unnecessary, as it feels so grandiose versus meaningful throughout some of the early scenes.
We shed some of that by the end, but I’m still torn. Like good for you girl, go get it, but at the same time if this were a female director and screenwriter, I don’t think we’d be seeing the same images on the screen.
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