Poor Things

So much to say about this film that has so much to say.  I’ll go over pretty much everything and finish off with my thoughts and impressions on the story and all that.  First off, obviously the cinematography is breathtaking and so dreamlike. The colors, the compostions, the camera lenses and the filters are beautiful. The environments themselves are surrealist wonder worlds and each stylized city is unique in its own way. London, Lisbon, the Ship, Alexandria and Paris each one of these places shine brighter than the last.  The cast of characters is also really great. Bella is a character that grows and evolves all the way through the movie and Emma Stone portrays her in such a way it’s like she was meant for it. Honestly, it must of been so fun to play this character that has so much… just overall substance. All of the other actors are great, but I’ll point out some of the standouts to me. Obviously, Mark Ruffalo is great, I mean he is nominated for an Oscar. Ramy Youssef, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Abott and Suzy Bemba are others I think deserve a shoutout. So much life and personality in each of these characters.  With those basic points out of the way, thoughts on the story. The story which is essentially the growth and evolution of Bella Baxter as a woman. In the beginning she’s a dumb bumbling baby (literally) who can’t do much. She’s protected and almost imprisoned by 2 men who are testing her as an experiment. One of the 2 even wants to marry her even if technically her mental age is still that of a child. She goes out on an “adventure” with a man who pretty much only wants her to himself and she has an ungodly amount of sex. She starts reading and becomes more and more aware of what cruelty exists in the world and the feelings men have about women. She sees that men want women all to themselves even if that means having to hurt said women. While “whoring” she discovers many things. She discovers she can use her body the way she desires, not the way men desire. When she returns she’s glad to see Max, the man who wanted to marry her as a child (technically), still does and is very open minded about her thoughts. Then we cut to the worse example of a man in Bella’s life, in fact, in Victorias life (yep gonna have to put this spoiler warning I suppose). This man loves cruelty and loves having ownership over his woman. So much so she killed herself with her child. This is the most blatant example in all the movie of what is happening. Bella has essentially become a feminist. Im half joking but that’s essentially the point of the movie.  In all fairness, perhaps there’s more to the message of this film but to me it’s just as simple as Bella discovering how to break free from societies constraints and being her free self. It’s not much more than that and to be honest, it’s kinda great for that. Maybe it could’ve gone deeper into this, maybe it’s too surface level to have a real impact, but it’s an original way of showing it and it’s doing no harm in my opinion. (there is however a weird glooming sense of pedophilia in the beginning of the film, that could be seen as odd to some which is valid).  Anyways, this movie really is quite a lot and I throughly enjoyed my time.