POOR THINGS – Review

Smart, clever and inventive, POOR THINGS is described by the filmmakers as “the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life from the brink of death by the brilliant, daring scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).” Based on the novel by the late Scottish author Alasdair Gray, director Lanthimos and scriptwriter Tony McNamara also reference Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” making this off-beat coming-of-age fantasy a kind of “feminist Frankenstein” that is part dark comedy, part adventure thriller and pure smart entertaining fantasy with an uplifting message.

POOR THINGS is a wild science fiction coming-of-age tale set in an alternate Victorian world that is part steam punk and part anachronistic fantasy from the writer/director who gave us THE FAVORITE and THE LOBSTER, Yorgos Lanthimos. It is also a whole lot of fun and an eye-popping visual treat, in which a young innocent meets a villain but it upends melodrama rules by essentially rescuing herself. The film is somewhat in the vein of a coming-of-age sexual romp like “Tom Jones” but flips the script on that male-centric sexual adventure by putting a young woman on that rule-breaking journey, making it a rollicking feminist adventure tale. Some of those adventures are bawdy, as they would be if the lead character were a young man, and the whole tale relishes breaking the rescue-the-maiden rules of melodrama.

Lanthimos and McNamara also collaborated on THE FAVOURITE, and audiences familiar with that fantasy retelling of Queen Anne’s real relationship with her closest friend, and with Lanthimos’s darker THE LOBSTER, know that this director can skillfully balance dark humor with thriller and even horror themes, turning from one to the other on the proverbial dime but without audience whiplash.

Set in a Victorian fantasy world that is part steam punk and part Merchant-Ivory film, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone ) is the creation of brilliant, eccentric scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Curious, energetic Bella has the body of a beautiful young woman but the brain of a baby, the result of Dr. Baxter’s experiment to save two lives by reviving a recently-dead body. We watch as Bella quickly grows from precocious as a curious child to an intellectually questing, sexually curious as a young woman eager to learn about the wider world.

Bella longs to explore the world beyond her sheltered home with her protective father-creator Dr. Godwin Baxter, whom she calls “God.” When the inquisitive woman-child also shows sexual curiosity, the doctor arranges for his medical student protege Max McCandless (Ramy Youssef) to become engaged to her. While Bella likes her new fiance, she is tempted by tales of the wider world told by crafty, unethical cad Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), and runs off with the villain.

While Dr. Baxter and Bella’s fiance are in frantic pursuit of the runaways, Ruffalo’s serial exploiter plans to seduce the innocent Bella and then discard her, of course. But Bella herself turns the tables on this familiar plot,” rescuing” her herself in her own way, while embarking on a grand tour combined with intellectual, philosophical and feminist coming-of-age journey.

This old-fashioned melodrama set-up is played for both drama and tongue-in-cheek comedy, with scenes sometimes mixing both serious and humorous. Bella embarks on an adventure that has a strong elements of “Tom Jones,” a continent-spanning journey that is a sexual adventure and intellectual/philosophical exploration, with a definite feminist twist. Who is exploiting who becomes the question.

Emma Stone gives an outstanding performance as the brilliant, irrepressible Bella, perhaps Stone’s career best so far, creating a character who is constantly surprising yet irresistible. Mark Ruffalo is also excellent as the villainous abductor, who more than gets his just desserts. Willem Dafoe’s doctor looks like an experiment gone wrong but turns out to have a heart of gold and Ramy Youssef makes his sweet, loyal assistant more than we expect too. The film is peppered with other memorable characters, with striking performances by Christopher Abbot , Suzy Bemba, Jerrod Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, Vicki Pepperdine, and Margaret Qualley particularly.

POOR THINGS is a visual banquet, thanks to cinematography by Director of Photography Robbie Ryan, and production designers James Price and Shona Heath, and costume designer Holly Waddington. The colorful, creative costumes signal that we are in a very different world. From the waist up, Bella looks the picture of Victorian modesty, with high collars, ruffles, and puffy shoulders, but below the waist, she is dressed in mini-skirts, shorts, or skirts of gauzy fabric. Everyone else is dressed in proper Victorian attire, yet no one notices Bella’s wild, revealing outfits. The gorgeous sets are all lush Belle Epoque, Beaux-Arts architecture and plush velvet furniture, but with unexpected little visual twists to remind us we are in the realm of the fantastic.

This mix of dark humor, sexual adventure and feminist empowerment means POOR THINGS adds up to a very entertaining, smart movie, with both a brain and a heart, and topped by an uplifting message that will leave you bouncing out of the theater.

POOR THINGS opens Friday, Dec. 22, in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars