Poor Things premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2023, where it won the Golden Lion. The film was released in the United States on December 8, 2023, and in Ireland and the United Kingdom on January 12, 2024, by Searchlight Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, particularly for the direction and lead performances, especially Stone and Ruffalo, and was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.
In Victorian London, medical student Max McCandles becomes an assistant to eccentric surgeon Godwin Baxter. He meets and falls in love with Godwin's ward, a childlike young woman named Bella. Godwin reveals that the woman, who was pregnant, died by suicide after leaping off a bridge. He resurrected Bella by replacing her brain with that of the still-living baby, resulting in her having an infant's mind.
With Godwin's permission, Max asks for Bella's hand in marriage. Bella accepts, but as her intelligence rapidly develops, she begins to crave autonomy and runs off with lawyer Duncan Wedderburn. Deciding to let her go, Godwin starts a new experiment with a young woman named Felicity, who matures much more slowly than Bella.
Bella and Duncan embark on a grand journey, starting in Lisbon, where the two engage in frequent sex, in addition to other forms of hedonism. She becomes difficult for him to control, so he smuggles her onto a cruise ship for a "change of scenery".
On the ship, she befriends fellow passengers Martha and Harry, who open her mind to philosophy. Initially attracted to Bella's childlike naivete, Duncan attempts to stunt her growth to no avail. He becomes increasingly exasperated and begins to indulge in drinking and gambling.
During a stop at Alexandria, Bella is distraught after witnessing the miserable poverty of the locals and donates Duncan's winnings, which are in turn stolen by the crew. Unable to afford the rest of the trip, the two are kicked off the ship at Marseille, after which they make their way to Paris.
Having run out of funds, Bella begins working at a brothel, further enraging Duncan and resulting in his mental breakdown, finally leading her to abandon him. At the brothel, she comes under the tutelage of Madame Swiney and befriends fellow prostitute Toinette, with whom she begins a relationship and who introduces her to socialism.
A terminally ill Godwin asks Max to bring Bella to him. Max locates her after tracking down Duncan, who has been institutionalized after his breakdown. Returning to London, Bella reconciles with Godwin and renews her plans to marry Max. The two are interrupted by Duncan and General Alfie Blessington on their wedding day.
Alfie, addressing Bella as Victoria, reveals that they were married before her disappearance and that he has come to reclaim her. She abandons Max to learn of her past life but quickly discovers Alfie's violent and sadistic nature, and realizes that she had committed suicide to escape their abusive relationship.
Alfie confines Bella to his mansion and threatens her at gunpoint to submit to genital mutilation, demanding she drink a chloroform-laced cocktail to sedate her for the procedure. She tosses the cocktail in his face, causing Alfie to shoot himself in the foot before passing out.
Godwin dies peacefully with Bella and Max at his side. Bella decides to carry on Godwin's work with the help of Max and Toinette; Alfie has his brain swapped for that of a goat, while Felicity's intelligence steadily progresses.
Produced by Film4 Productions, Element Pictures, TSG Entertainment, and Searchlight Pictures, development on the film began as early as 2009, when Lanthimos went to Scotland to discuss with the author of Poor Things, Alasdair Gray, the acquisition of the rights to his novel. "He was a very lovely man," Lanthimos shared, "Unfortunately, he died just a couple of years before we actually made the film, but he was very special and energetic; he was 80-something [when we met], and as soon as I got there, he had seen Dogtooth and said, 'I had my friend put on the DVD, because I don't know how to operate these things, but I think you're very talented, young man.'" Lanthimos shared that Gray took him on a personal tour of Glasgow, where Gray showed Lanthimos several places that he had incorporated into the story.[7]
While filming The Favourite (2018), Lanthimos revisited the project, which he discussed with Emma Stone, who also starred in the film. Lanthimos began developing Poor Things more actively following the success of The Favourite: "After the relative success of The Favourite, where I actually made a slightly more expensive film that was successful, people were more inclined to allow me to do whatever it is that I wanted, so I just went back to Gray's book and said, 'This is what I want to do.' It was a long process, but the book was always on my mind." While developing the film, Lanthimos and Stone collaborated with each other on the short film Bleat (2022).[8]
Pre-production
Poor Things was officially announced in February 2021.[9] Lanthimos felt that working with Stone again gave him an advantage to the production, as they had developed a mutual trust towards one another. Stone also discussed how the process of making Poor Things was different in comparison to The Favourite because she also acted as a producer: "It was so interesting to be involved in how the film was being pieced together, from cast to department heads to what have you. Ultimately, Yorgos was the one making those decisions, but I was very involved in the process, which started during the pandemic; we were reaching out to people and casting and everything during that time, because we couldn't go anywhere."[8]
In preparation for her role, Stone took dance lessons and dyed her hair black, which she admitted was accidental. Lanthimos reflected that the dark hair contrasted with Stone's fair complexion so much that they agreed to go forward with the look.[17][18] Describing her characterization of Bella, Stone was attracted to the idea of portraying a woman reborn with a liberated mindset free from societal pressures:
"It's such a fairy tale, and a metaphor—clearly, this can't actually happen—but the idea that you could start anew as a woman, as this body that's already formed, and see everything for the first time and try to understand the nature of sexuality, or power, or money or choice, the ability to make choices and live by your own rules and not society's—I thought that was a really fascinating world to go into."
Stone especially appreciated Bella's lack of shame in regards to her experiences:
Even though Bella has obviously been through trauma in her life, it just isn't there for her now. She was the most joyous character in the world to play, because she has no shame about anything. She's new, you know? I've never had to build a character before that didn't have things that had happened to them or had been put on them by society throughout their lives. It was an extremely freeing experience to be her.[8]
Youssef revealed that in preparation for their roles, he and Dafoe attended mortician school. Reflecting on the "experimental theater games" Lanthimos assigned the cast prior filming, Dafoe shared, "You're very patient with everyone, and everyone's patient with you. They need to be confident in what they're doing, because what we're doing is quite risky. It's not a normal film."[17] Additionally, Dafoe spent six hours each day in the hair and makeup department - four hours getting extensive prosthetics applied to his face at the start of the day and two hours to get it all taken off at the end of the day.[19]
Discussing the male characterizations, Lanthimos acknowledged that while each male character was different and had their own individual motivations, they each represented male attitudes typical of the story's Victorian setting. Lanthimos stated:
"There are variations, I guess, but in this film, there's a general tendency to try to control [Bella]—even if it's done in a caring or subtle way, in the way that a parent might or that [Dafoe's character] Baxter does, or just being infatuated in the way that Ramy is. You know, being a nice man deep down, but still having the characteristics of a man of that era." Stone also asserted that "the more agency Bella gets, the more she learns and grows, the more it drives these men insane. The more she has an opinion and her own wants and needs and all of that, it makes them crazy; they want her to stay this sort of pure thing."[8]
Filming
Principal photography took place in Hungary, beginning in August 2021 at Origo Studios in Budapest[20] and wrapping in December of that year.[21] It is the first feature-film to be partially shot on Kodak's 35mm Ektachrome color reversal motion picture film stock.[22]
Lanthimos worked closely with costume designer Holly Waddington in order to reflect Bella's growth and development through her wardrobe, from the more puffy silhouettes of her childlike era to the nearly corseted gown she wears at the film's climax.[citation needed]
Stone further elaborated on Bella's growth reflected through her costumes, detailing how in the beginning of the story. Bella dresses in more traditional clothing of the era, and, following her transformation, begins to dress herself in more bizarre clothes. Stone said:
"I loved that element of, how would Bella put clothing together with the way her mind works at this point? At the end, there are these very military-looking dresses that look like nothing you've seen Bella wear; things are much more form-fitting and constrained, but that's because she's come to a place where she's grown and decided who she is and what she's going to do. She's not assimilating, necessarily, but there's just more structure there."[8]
The film's original music is scored by Pop musician Jerskin Fendrix in his feature composition debut. The soundtrack album was released by Milan Records in conjunction with the film's release date, December 8, 2023. Two singles—"Bella" and "Lisbon"—released on November 14.[25]
In its limited opening weekend, the film made $644,000 from nine theaters, a per-venue average of $71,556 (the third-best of 2023).[37] Expanding to 82 theaters the following weekend the film made $2.2 million, finishing in 10th.[38] In its third weekend the film made $2.4 million from 800 theaters, and a total of $3.4 million over the four-day Christmas frame.[39]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 326 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Wildly imaginative and exhilaratingly over the top, Poor Things is a bizarre, brilliant tour de force for director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone."[41]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 87 out of 100, based on 61 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[42] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while 68% of those polled by PostTrak called the film "excellent," with 75% saying they would definitely recommend it.[37]
Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote that Poor Things is "Lanthimos' finest movie so far, a strange, gorgeous-looking picture that extends generosity both to its characters and the audience". She found Stone's performance "wonderful—vital, exploratory, almost lunar in its perfect oddness."[43]Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it a "virtuoso comic epic" and added that Stone had given a "hilarious, beyond-next-level performance".[44] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter termed it "an insanely enjoyable fairy tale", adding that Stone "gorges on it in a fearless performance that traces an expansive arc most actors could only dream about".[5]Variety's Guy Lodge also believed that the film "rests on a single astonishing performance by Stone".[45]
BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber found the film "outrageous and hilarious", comparing it to the work of Wes Anderson and Terry Gilliam. The review also noted that the novel's realistic nineteenth-century setting had been changed to a fantastical "steam-punk wonderland", and that some of its satirical humor and most of its socialist and feminist themes had been toned down.[46] Reviews by The Guardian,[44]Variety[45] and Entertainment Weekly[47] also underline the steampunk elements of the setting. Conversely, Manohla Dargis, chief critic of The New York Times, was not as impressed. She felt the story became more "monotonal, flat and dull" over time, writing that the movie's "design is rich, its ideas thin. ... It isn't long into Poor Things that you start to feel as if you were being bullied into admiring a movie that's so deeply self-satisfied there really isn't room for the two of you." Nevertheless, she too lauded Stone's acting.[48]
Ramin Setoodeh and Zack Sharf in Variety commented, "But not everyone loved Poor Things. A stream of [Venice] theatergoers bolted for the exit during some of the racier scenes."[49]Mick LaSalle at the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "a 141-minute mistake" and asserted, "Worst of all, it's dishonest. It purports to be a feminist document, but it defines a woman's autonomy as the ability to be exploited and not care. ... What version of feminism are these guys — Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara — trying to sell us here?"[50] Film critic Scott Mantz applauded LaSalle's post, finding the film "a seriously misguided take on female empowerment", though he praised the film's ambition and production values.[51]
The film has been subject to scrutiny in Gray's native Scotland due to its seeming disregard for the source material and its Scottish roots,[52] with online documentary channel Ossian presenting a portrayal of the true origins of Poor Things and its original Scottish setting.[53] Those closest to Gray have suggested that Lanthimos's intepretation of the source material was something Gray himself agreed to in the early 2010s, when contractual terms for a screenplay were drawn up.[54]
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