Who’s Who In Poor Things: A Guide to Its Marvelous Cast
ABC Film Challenge – Catch-Up 2023 – Y (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Tony McNamara, Alasdair Gray (Screenplay)
Cast
- Emma Stone (The Favourite)
- Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
- Willem Dafoe (The Boy and the Heron)
- Ramy Youssef (Wish)
- Christopher Abbott (Possessor)
Plot: The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter; a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter.
Runtime: 2 Hours 21 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Poor Things starts as scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (Dafoe) brings Bella (Stone) back to life. He raises her like a daughter, but keeps her confined to their home. Godwin brings in a young doctor Max McCandles (Youssef) to help with the research. However, when a sleazy lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Ruffalo) comes along, Bella dreams of the outside world.
Once Godwin agrees to let her see the world, Duncan takes her away. However, her eagerness to learn sees her diving into a world she wasn’t prepared for. Some she enjoys and wants to learn more about. While others show a darker side to humanity that she wants to help.
Verdict on Poor Things
Poor Things is a sci-fi comedy fantasy romance movie. It follows a young, reincarnated woman discovering the world for the first time. She must adapt to different social situations, as she learns about her desires from the world.
This is a strange story that can easily be described as a twist on the Frankenstein story. While the science is even more twisted, it shows the doctor giving his creation more time to learn the world. However, it has a lot of filler nonsense, that takes away from the twisted concepts from the reincarnated side of things.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos has always had a twisted concept of what people want to see in his films, and a lot of what is shown is not that interesting. I personally hate watching people eat and the number of constant eating scenes is extremely annoying. Away from the story, the technical side of the film is fantastic, with an amazing team putting together the sets, costumes, and everything around the characters. The larger world creation is fascinating and the peephole camera shots are interesting to see too.
When we look at the performances, they are great, and everyone fully commits to their roles in the movie. They create oddball characters in this strange world.
Final Thoughts – Poor Things is a creative, strange and unusual journey.
