Poor Things

 

I've read several reviews and opinions about this film. Most have a kernel of truth but none really nail it - but how to nail something that is so unique? 

Set in a (mildly bonkers) steampunk version of nineteenth century Europe it's the story of Bella, a deceased woman brought back to life by a Victor Frankenstein-type doctor who has replaced her dead brain with that of her foetus. But it's a "Frankenstein story" with a difference: the disfigured doctor himself is the result of experimentation by his scientist father and his creation, Bella, is a long way from looking like "a monster". And the 'good' doctor has been practicing on varied species of animals as well as humans.

Essentially the film seeks to provide an answer to the question "how would a young woman behave without the 'benefit' (imposition) of societal, religious, or parental conditioning" as she discovers first her body, then the world, through her senses and developing intellect. In her journey she is gloriously, naively, spontaneous. It is no surprise when she is exploited in different ways by men, but by the end she is no mere cipher but has real agency. (She starts the film speaking in grunts and baby-talk and ends it arguing philosophy.)

To call it a feminist film would be to limit, even deny, its ambition, though nearly all of the male characters are misogynistic, self-serving, controlling or downright abusive. 

To call it male-view centric or titillating would be, in my opinion, simply incorrect. There's nudity and bonking in spades, none of it remotely erotic.

The music, cinematic colour schemes, locations, costumes, and sets combine to make the all-too-familiar behaviours - and the events that we see - all take place in a world that has slipped sideways slightly from our own. This isn't to say that atmosphere is more important than narrative; we are taken on an odyssey across Europe and back to London and exposed to humour, jeopardy, fellowship on the way. And Stone is simply magnificent.

It seems a long film but well worth it for the penultimate and final acts which ironically, once again, involve surgery for Bella.