With so many shades of Frankenstein, and featuring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef, Poor Things is set in Victorian London. Medical student Max McCandles (Youssef) becomes an assistant to the eccentric surgeon Dr Godwin ‘God’ Baxter (Dafoe) and falls in love with Godwin’s ward, Bella (Stone), a childlike young woman…
Max learns that a pregnant woman named Victoria (also Stone) killed herself by leaping off a bridge, and Godwin replaced her brain with that of her unborn fetus, giving the infant Bella an adult’s body.
With Godwin’s encouragement, Max asks for Bella’s hand in marriage. Bella accepts, but as her intelligence rapidly develops, she becomes curious about the outside world and runs off with a debauched lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Ruffalo). Deciding to let her go, Godwin starts a new experiment with a young woman, Felicity, who matures much more slowly than Bella.
Add to this: a cruise ship journey to Paris via Lisbon, Alexandria, and Marseille; prostitution; socialism; and a creepy ex-husband – what could possibly go wrong?
From the bizarre mind of the three-time Academy Award-nominated Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster), Poor Things is an unhinged dark comedy that expresses an insatiable lust for life with lush visuals and exhilarating performances. Co-producer and star Emma Stone is perfection in her richest portrayal yet alongside equally entertaining turns from Ruffalo, Dafoe, and Ramy Youssef.
Poor Things is screening at Ballina and Palace Cinemas – palacecinemas.com.au.
