The Most Repulsive Part of ‘Poor Things’ Is Its Most Human
If you’ve seen Poor Things, the marvelous new film from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, chances are that you were expecting a wild, occasionally perverse ride. After all, Lanthimos—whose work includes films about crooked doctors being blackmailed by nefarious teens, single people being turned into animals if they don’t partner up, and needy, gout-stricken royalty—is known for his penchant for the peculiar. But whether you were intimately familiar with Lanthimos’ films or were just looking to see the latest rousing performance from Emma Stone is no issue: Poor Things is a crash course in Lanthimos’ most treasured cinematic oddities.
Among all of the fisheye-lens cutaways and gleefully caustic dialogue, one moment, in particular, might’ve given you pause. It’s a revelation that arrives about halfway through the film, and turns an already kooky narrative on its head once more. Up until this point, viewers are led to believe that Bella Baxter (Stone), after dying by suicide, was reanimated by the brilliant scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). This is enough to explain Bella’s curious disposition and her maladroit movements as she regains control of her corporeal form—or so we initially believe.
Bella’s bizarre behavior is truthfully the symptom of something more unorthodox than being brought back from the dead. (In a Yorgos Lanthimos film, there are often stranger occurrences than resurrection.) Her true nature will no doubt puzzle—and possibly even disgust—some viewers, but Bella’s inquisitive temperament frames Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara’s doe-eyed take on starting your life over. Poor Things is brimming with a singular, pragmatic optimism. Through Bella’s eyes, the film becomes a remarkable glimpse at the things we could achieve if we weren’t so beholden to the standards of the world around us. We spend our lives plagued by the consequences of the choices we make while figuring out what it means to be human. Poor Things suggests that, though it feels utterly unfeasible, starting over is not an impossibility.