Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is about hubris. Man playing god, creating life, that sort of thing. Poor Things is a Frankenstein movie without a moral or message.
Poor Things is one of those movies where, after watching, I thought, “Well, that was something.”, and couldn’t say whether or not I liked it. One way to look at a movie is to consider how appealing, engaging and irritating it is.
The premise is easy to explain. Emma Stone plays a young pregnant woman who jumps off of a bridge to commit suicide. Willem DeFoe plays an eccentric scientist who harvests the fresh body from the river. Her brain is dead, but her baby’s is not, so DeFoe sticks the baby’s brain in her skull. Mark Ruffalo plays a rakish cad who is intrigued by DeFoe’s creation.
Emma Stone’s character, Bella, has a baby brain. The plot follows Bella’s development. It happens quickly and skips a lot of the baby stuff. Early in her development, she acts like a mildly retarded person. She doesn’t move smoothly or understand how to behave. Everything is new to her. As she learns, she starts acting like someone on the autism spectrum. Empathy develops, but she never really gets the hang of morality.
The movie is appealing. It takes place in a fantasy time and place that is a little steampunk or Victorian with an ambiguous level of technology. Some scenes are shot in black and white, or with a fisheye lens. The science institute’s lecture theater looked Bugs Bunny-ish.
The outside world is colorful and interesting. Some locations are actual cities like Paris, but a fantastic version.
The clothing and music are inventive, but appropriate.
There is quite a bit of nudity as Bella enjoys sex immensely. By herself, with her man, a customer or women. This isn’t as appealing as you’d think as she is mentally disabled.
The movie is engaging. I often have movies on as background while doing other things. This movie pulled me because it was never clear what Bella was going to do next.
The movie is not irritating at all. There is no effort to appeal to Modern Audiences or push any social agenda. Some minor characters are easy to hate, but the main characters had charisma and did what they thought was best. DeFoe’s character, the scientist, is named Godwin and was often addressed as God. Since he created life, that was a little on-the-nose.
Bella is amoral, so acts as a utilitarian. She doesn’t understand the world, but as she learns, she does whatever seems to be in her interest. Ruffalo’s character, Duncan is a hedonist, so lives for pleasure and suffers for it. Godwin cares about his creation, but doesn’t interfere with Bella’s experiences.
The Academy Awards take place tonight. Emma Stone has been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She deserves it because as an actress, she is taking big risks in Poor Things, she does a fine job. A little campy, serious, funny or caustic, along with the physical aspect of moving like someone born into a different body.
Poor Things is also nominated for Best Costume Design. Again, they should win. Other nominated movies are portraying a historical era, so have a style to match. Barbie is nominated. That’s a good call, but Barbie costumes are reasonably defined. For Poor Things, costumes were designed that don’t look like any familiar style, but do look good, are practical and plausible.
It’s hard to say that I liked Poor Things, but I’m glad I watched it. That’s worth 8.5 out of 10.