"Poor Things" satirizes Victorian England through naïve Bella Baxter

Some directors enjoy pushing their films’ style and content beyond conventional formulas. That group includes Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos whose work includes “The Lobster,” “The Favourite,” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” With his newest, “Poor Things,” Lanthimos has exceeded even his previous outlandish choices as Bella Baxter pursues a life of unregulated, hedonistic indulgence.

Undeterred by verbal finesse or physical moderation, Bella roams the world after Dr. Godwin Baxter, who created her Frankenstein style, releases her. Since Bella has a fetus’ brain and everything to learn, Baxter, himself a medical patchwork, enlists conniving lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, a gambler of licentious, tastes as a guide, much to the dismay of suitor, medical student Max McCandles. Set in Victorian England, Bella’s appetites develop as she explores from Lisbon to Alexandria, Marseille back to London.

Adapted by Tony McNamara from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same title, “Poor Things” is riotous in tone, art direction, music, and cinematography, a full complement to the story. The actors—Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, and more—throw themselves completely and unapologetically into their roles, as they must for this fantastical world to work at all. At a Telluride Film Festival Q&A where I first saw the film, director Lanthimos said Bella progresses through stages, “discovering her sexuality, her intellect, her empathy for others, the nature of friendship, all within a hypocritical Victorian society.”

However, clearly endorsing her “liberation,” Emma still represents women first and foremost as sexual beings. Yes, men exploit, restrain, victimize, and attempt to control women, but they (the women) do not lead with, nor, as satirical as the film is, are they defined by analytical, intelligent, theoretical insights. This film, and others reportedly of a feminist nature, surrender to restrictive biological expectations and stereotypes. To be fair and on balance, often in gratifying ways, the women assert, struggle, challenge, confront, and argue, but the focus remains. Oh, for the day, when cinema moves past or, at the very least, deliberates men’s and women’s intellects as much as their bodies. Check listings for “Poor Things.”