Debuted at Venice Film Festival, Poor Things is a trenchantly funny new feature that tackles still-current ills of sexism, colonialism, cynicism and militarism head on
an antic, libidinous affair that rivals the Greek director’s Oscar-winning last film,, in imparting tragicomic force to his trademark theatre of the absurd. But for its wickedly funny first half, it’s his breakthroughthe film most recalls, as Bella, who is forbidden to leave the house, pushes at the limits of her confinement.
To study her development, Godwin charges a young medical student, the hapless Archie McCandles, with shadowing her every move at home. Of course, he soon falls in love with her – well, maybe ‘love’ is the wrong word – which the wily surgeon uses to his advantage by conniving their engagement to be married.
, to name just a few. “We are men of science!” barks Godwin in one scene, suppressing his fatherly feelings for the girl. “This emotionality is unseemly.” Weddeburn and, to an extent, Archie fall for Bella because she is that fantastical meeting point of childlike innocence and sexual voraciousness, giving her body freely while appearing a blank canvas upon which they can bestow their dubious wisdom.
But as Bella’s mind expands on their cruise filled with “furious jumping” , the tables are turned as the philandering Weddeburn grows mad with rage and desire at his new paramour’s seemingly inexplicable behaviour. Leaving him behind to take up sex work in a Parisian bordello, she learns more about the ways of men through fucking. But when Bella returns home upon learning that Godwin is ill, the question of her past rears its head and she must decide what to do with her future.
That said, there’s a sense the script isn’t quite as on-point when wrestling with Bella’s later existential quandaries, and it suffers a little from the novel’s problem of serving up fringe characters as ciphers. I was likewise unsure about the ending, whether it was too glib, somehow – but these are minor niggles in a“Always carve with compassion,” says Godwin in the film, a monster finally softening a little in his old age. It’s a code Lanthimos increasingly seems to live by.
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