I always try to watch as many Oscar-nominated movies as I can before the big night so I can have an informed opinion on who is most deserving. This year I’ve seen all but two. Last Thursday I watched “Poor Things.”
A pregnant woman commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. Dr. Godwin Baxter finds her and brings her back to life by taking her baby’s brain and transplanting it into her head after removing her old brain. When we first see her, she has the mind of a two year-old, in a woman’s body. Dr. Baxter has named her Bella Baxter. He hires a student doctor, Max McCandless, to come take notes on Bella’s progress and Max falls in love with her. Dr Baxter asks Max to marry her and he agrees, but before he can, cad and rake attorney Duncan Wedderburn falls in love with her unique person and spirits her away for a life of adventure. Bella wants to learn about the world and so she goes. Bella continues to choose freedom and learning, which drives Duncan Wedderburn mad. The film continues from there.
My biggest takeaway is this: I believe this body of work is best read, rather than made into a film. Why? So many BIG themes prevail that a viewer finds it difficult to take in all of them and think about all of them and keep track of events at the same time. The most obvious theme is the one of evil patriarchy which prevails throughout the entire film. Another considers how far we go in the name of science and experimentation. It is revealed that Dr. Baxter was continually abused by his doctor father in the name of experimentation and he is in many ways deformed by that. So there is the theme of child abuse. Bella is not the only experiment Dr. Baxter has made. Creatures made from parts of various animals put together run about the house and grounds.
Another theme is women finding their power and asserting it which is examined during Bella’s time working in the house of ill repute and also in the ending of the film. The viewer gets to think about prostitution as many theories regarding that are bandied about by Madame Swiney, who runs the bordello. Another dwells upon the choice of just letting things happen to see what comes next, in the vein of the film “Sans Loi, Ni Toi” (or in English, “Vagabond.”) Nothing good ever comes from that.
Instead, it is better to make choices based on consequences and what we’ve learned from life which is what Bella chooses to do in the end when her former husband finds her and claims her just as she’s about to marry Max. You find out why she had jumped from the bridge to begin with and see how her adventures have empowered her to gain the upper hand despite her husband being a cruel monster. She decides to become a doctor and performs an experiment of her own.
All the acting is this film is terrific, especially that of Mark Ruffalo who portrays Duncan Wedderburn.
One of my favorite scenes is when Bella and Duncan are dining with another couple and sexual innuendos make up the conversation. Because she doesn’t have a grasp on social niceties, Bella joins in the conversation using the word “penis.” All the conversation comes to a sudden halt and the other three appear shocked. Bella doesn’t understand the incongruity in that based on what the others have been doing and saying, and as a viewer one also sees how stupid what is allowed in polite conversation and what is not, happens to be.
I also found the settings to be appealing, a kind of Victorian fantasy world. The same goes for the costuming, especially Bella’s clothing.
However, I have to say this is not a film for the squeamish or prudish, and not one that I would recommend to anyone. I would rather have read Alasdair Gray’s book, Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer. 1992. Then I could have absorbed the ideas and the story more slowly rather than having it all slammed in front of my face in a few short hours.