At The Movies: In Poor Things, a strong-willed woman evades the clutches of terrible men
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Poor Things (R21)
141 minutes, limited screenings from Jan 20 at The Projector
4 stars
The story: In the laboratory of eminent scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a new assistant Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) meets Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a naive young woman who appears to be mentally and physically disabled. As the weeks pass, McCandles comes to understand the mysterious origins of the strange child-woman with appetites that scandalise the household. Bella yearns for freedom, just as the worldly Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) makes his introduction to the Baxter home.
At the recent Golden Globes, Stone won Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
The black comedy, adapted from Scottish author Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, is being released at The Projector as part of Freaks & Greeks: A Yorgos Lanthimos Showcase.
In cinema, when the leading female character frees herself of social constraints, the result is often terror. From Takashi Miike’s work of horror Audition (1999), about a woman serial killer, to Robert Eggers’ period fantasy The Witch (2015), about a girl finding relief from 17th-century Puritan beliefs in a coven, the driving force has been women’s wrath.
Like the women in Audition and The Witch, Bella finds herself boxed in by horrible men. But in this fantastical tale, one that infuses its steampunk-influenced science-fiction premise with shades of body horror and absurdity, Bella is ravenous for intellectual and sexual adventure, not vengeance.
Created as a blank slate, she is an innocent, unburdened by shame, and becomes an explorer in realms that most women would not, or cannot, venture to.
Greek film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos is drawn to stories about the weirdness that blooms in confined spaces. In The Lobster (2015), David (Colin Farrell) risks punishment because he prefers being alone in a society that has criminalised singlehood. And in the drama Dogtooth (2009), three young persons isolated at home by parental paranoia create a perverse mirror image of society.
Bella, the child of a mad scientist, has no concept of sin and so acts on every desire. These urges often make no sense and are dangerous to others, but in the minds of Lanthimos, author Gray and screenwriter Tony McNamara, that is human nature in its raw state – irrational and selfish.
The black comedy is being released at The Projector as part of Freaks & Greeks: A Yorgos Lanthimos Showcase.
PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY CO
Bella is, at first, a gleefully destructive toddler. She retains her childlike charm even as she matures mentally, under the tutelage of characters such as brothel keeper Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter), world-weary traveller Harry Astley (Jerrod Carmichael) and Marxist prostitute Toinette (Suzy Bemba). The rake Wedderburn sees her as an innocent he can corrupt and a piece of clay he can shape. She has other ideas.
A transformation like Bella’s is tricky. Too often, the result is character incoherence. Bella’s identity by the end is far removed from who she was at the beginning, but through her assured performance, Stone manages to hold these versions within the same person.
Hot take: Bella seeks to learn the ways of the world and, while doing so, shines a light on its absurd beliefs about the place of women and the role of sex in Anglo-Saxon society.
