Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) directs the adaptation of Poor Things, a bizarre, imaginative adventure of self-discovery featuring a bravura performance by Emma Stone.
A young woman commits suicide and is revived by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) who transplants into her the brain of a child. Bella (Emma Stone) begins to learn about the meaning of life with her innocent mind, curious about her existence and testing her limits which means potentially exceeding the norms of acceptable behavior. She goes off to explore the world and experience things for the first time. Her emotional growth also accompanies her sexual awakening especially with an unscrupulous lawyer (Mark Ruffalo). Through her travels, she witnesses the good and bad in humanity, but when the truth about her past emerges, it threatens to change everything she has come to know and believe.
Stone is a revelation, giving a tour-de-force, fearless turn as Bella whose evolving, mental growth form the overall character arc. Rebellious and precocious, she has a pure, untainted heart, and just when you expect her to do something rash and outrageous, she follows up with a thoughtful, compassionate act. This results in awkward, at times hilarious moments particularly in a showstopper duet on a dance floor.
Akin to the cinematic
flourishes of Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro, this film is a completely
realized world with its Frankenstein
premise (populated with convincing, hybrid animals that begs the question, “Can
Lanthimos adapt Geek Love?”). Complete with a gothic score, the gorgeous sets
and costumes are shot in sumptuous
colors alternating with black and white. With outstanding support from Dafoe
and Ruffalo, it’s an unorthodox
narrative both entertaining and potentially divisive, and though unabashed in
its explicitness and audacity, it’s a unique and fascinating film.
*****
of ***** stars (for Lanthimos fans)
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