Searchlight Pictures has released a teaser for the new Emma Stone movie Poor Things — and unlike many teasers, this trailer deserves the name, featuring only 30 seconds of footage and one line of dialogue (two, if you count an extremely camp “ow” from Mark Ruffalo).
Nonetheless, there’s a lot to intrigue and mystify in this collection of surreal imagery from the mind of director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite). And it’s not just from Lanthimos’ mind. Poor Things is an adaptation of the 1992 novel by the idiosyncratic Scottish author and illustrator Alasdair Gray, who very much had his own set of preoccupations (including sex, socialism, and typesetting — he not only illustrated all his own books but typeset them by hand).
So, as a fan of both Gray and the book, let me explain what you’re seeing here. In fact, the official logline is not a bad place to start:
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
This is a decent summary, but it omits some of the juicier and funnier details of Gray’s plot and characterization. Let’s break it down by character — with the caveat that Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara (who co-wrote The Favourite and Stone’s Cruella as well as creating the TV show The Great) may not have wanted, or been able to, replicate all of these on screen.
- Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter is not just a young woman brought back to life — she is the corpse of a young pregnant woman, reanimated with the brain of the baby she was carrying, which then proceeds to develop at an abnormally fast rate. So she’s her own daughter, and mother. She’s curious, intelligent, kind, compassionate, and has a furious appetite for both food and sex (the shape of the window behind her in this set photo is no accident).
- Willem Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter is the brilliant, privately wealthy medical doctor and shut-in who brings Bella to life. In the book, he is an actual giant, with a huge head, weirdly conical hands, and a high-pitched voice that is unbearable to hear — but he’s also kindly and principled. It seems like Lanthimos has opted to reduce him to normal size and express his grotesquerie through facial scarring instead, although that he doesn’t appear in the same shot as any other characters in the trailer.
- Mark Ruffalo’s Duncan Wedderburn is a caddish lawyer and inveterate gambler who steals Bella away on a long European trip, thinking to take advantage of the comely, innocent young woman. But he gets a surprise when her appetites exceed his and he can’t keep up.
- Ramy Youssef’s Max McCandless is presumably the film’s version of Archibald McCandless, the narrator of the book. He’s Godwin’s friend and colleague, a good doctor from humble origins, and also a bit of a bore, who gets engaged to Bella before she runs away with Wedderburn.
- Jerrod Carmichael’s Harry Astley is an English gentleman Bella meets on her travels, whose cynical, imperialist worldview is challenged by her compassion. He falls in love with her, like every other man in the story.
The movie looks heavily visually stylized, almost fantastical, while the book takes place in a semi-realistic Victorian world with a few Gothic flourishes. The opening shots of the trailer nod to the Frankenstein story, which Gray riffed on for his book. Otherwise, the film seems to focus on Bella and Wedderburn’s steamship tour. In the book, she has other adventures, including a spell in a Parisian brothel, and a lot of time is spent with Godwin and McCandless (whom Bella calls “Candle”) moping around in Glasgow in her absence.
It remains to be seen how much of the book Lanthimos and McNamara will bring to the screen, but if you’re at all curious, I can’t recommend it enough — like all Alasdair Gray, it’s hilarious, moving, impassioned, and gloriously weird.
FAQs
Poor Things builds upon the themes of unnatural births, adolescence, and the faces of monstrosity, and runs away adeptly with many more. Mentally, Bella Baxter rapidly develops through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and womanhood in a fully adult body. She's bright, eccentric, spontaneous, and hungry for the world.
Where did the baby come from in Poor Things? ›
In the movie Poor Things, the baby's brain becomes the central part of the story, and the baby is Bella Baxter herself. This means Bella is both the baby and the reanimated version of her mother. Poor Things is a movie adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same name with a bold narrative and themes of identity.
What is the message of the movie Poor Things? ›
Poor Things Explained
The most obvious theme in the film is the subjugation women are forced to endure from men. Characters like Duncan are attracted to Bella because of her looks and her willingness to go along with whatever they say. Then, once Bella develops a mind of her own, Duncan becomes insecure and angry.
Was the baby alive in Poor Things? ›
The body was discovered by a scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) who realized that though Victoria was dead, the child within her was very much alive.
How old is her brain in Poor Things? ›
Both Gray and Lanthimos tell the story of how genius surgeon Godwin Baxter loses control of the woman he manufactures by putting together the body of a 25-year-old woman, who commits suicide by drowning in the river, and the brain of her almost nine-months old female foetus.
Is "Poor Things" based on a true story? ›
PSA: Poor Things is not a true story | Dazed.
What is disturbing about Poor Things? ›
Content warning: the film depicts scenes of blood, interior organs, dead corpses, graphic surgery, suicide, sexual assault, prostitution and nudity. The film “Poor Things” got some of the most mixed reviews that I have ever seen, making it arguably one of the most impactful films of the year.
Why is Poor Things an 18? ›
UK version was cut in one sex scene to secure an "18" rating. The cut(s) were made to this scene because it was in the presence of children within in the movie. Under UK law, this could be illegal and therefore required removal before being shown at cinemas or distributed within the country.
How many Oscars did "Poor Things" win? ›
“Poor Things” was one of the big winners at last night's Academy Awards. The feature film from Fremantle's Irish subsidiary Element Pictures prevailed in four categories. First and foremost, lead actress Emma Stone received the coveted Oscar statue in the “Best Actress” category.
What is the deeper meaning of Poor Things? ›
Poor Things is a film about innocence, about discovery, about human nature. It makes us question the way we view things, the way we censor behaviour, the way we impose societal norms upon each other, and how seeing those norms disregarded can be both disturbing and exhilarating.
Godwin himself is a victim of his father's sad*stic scientific experiments that have left him with a horribly mutilated face and a malfunctioning digestive system repaired by his ingenious steampunk-ish machinery.
How old is she supposed to be in Poor Things? ›
At the beginning of Poor Things, when a pregnant Victoria takes her own life, she's around 30 years old. Her age is never explicitly stated, but that's the ballpark figure. Victoria's age more or less lines up with Stone's own age during filming.
Was Emma Stone exploited in Poor Things? ›
There have also been accusations that the nudity is exploitative and that, because Bella has the brain of a child, there are consent issues at play. “If it helps, as the person who played it and produced it, I didn't see her as a child in any of those scenes,” Stone told The Times when these criticisms were raised.
What is the controversy with Poor Things? ›
Poor Things is ableist because of its use of prosthetics to simulate facial differences and its explicit comparison of Bella Baxter, who has a baby's brain and an adult's body, to people with intellectual disabilities. Many other disabled people, including Erica Mones and Andrew Gurza, also criticized its ableism.
Is Poor Things misogynistic? ›
In fact, I consider this bizarre film, with all its sex, gore and general weirdness, one of the most misogynistic movies I've watched in recent years. Based on the novel by the late Alasdair Gray, Poor Things is a subversive spin on Frankenstein.
