It happens every Oscar season to every film lover – that one film, or two, hopefully no more just doesn’t click with you. However I face this year the same thing with Poor Things that I did with last years ultimate winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, which in many ways is a sort of ambivalence. Both films simply exhausted me at a certain point despite the immense quality of all on screen and all involved. Now I think I do prefer Poor Things minute for minute than I do last years winner, however I can’t help but admitting that although there were no parts exactly of Poor Things that I hated, it is with regret that it did very little for me when it came to true enjoyment. As Bella Baxter our intrepid heroine here finds out as she scoffs Portuguese cream treats, one can actually have too much of a good thing.
Fascinating, bold and darkly hilalrious are words that always come up when discussing the works of Yorgos Lanthimos who has continued with this latest effort an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s post-modern feminist Frankenstein tale to deliver yet another highly successful and highly original film that dazzles and astounds in equal measure to provoking uncomfortableness. Poor Things reunites him with many elements of his team from The Favourite, including Emma Stone here as an actress and producer, aswell as writer Tony McNamara. Now this is a film with no less astounding production work, no less excellent directing, no less witty and brilliant writing and certainly no less of a plethora of wonderful performances, but I have to admit that in the case of Poor Things it wore thin in a way that his other films most certainly did not. Poor Things afterall is a film of incredible excess and incredible visual flourish in every single moment and scene and is built around a premise of physical comedy and heightened absurdism clashing with dark truths of life in a way that works very well despite the tightrope act of tones. But it does have an episodic quality that unfortunately in this case led it to feel slightly overlong and exhausting. The film is excellent in almost every way, but just did not click for me personally. Lanthimos as a director never fails to create images and camera work that keeps his films vital and enthralling, but from the very first extended sequence I found myself slightly feeling the grating start, and with regret it only got worse. McNamara’s script too is built around a series of incredibly heightened characters who are frequently funny and frequently touching in their notions of life, this is afterall a film built around discovery and so there is an awful lot of orating and speechifying and for the most part it doesn’t feel noticeable and all feels justified within the world created, but by the time we get to the final stretch and have even more outload commentary it begins to feel a lot less entertaining than the heights of the film offers. The score for that matter too I couldn’t help but find grating and frustrating all in a wholly intentional experimental feeling I’m certain, but the work of Jerskin Fendrix I’m afraid in this case did not excite me and at worst irritated me.
Performance
wise and production wise however the film is flawless. The work of designers
Shona Heath and James Price in creating multiple whole worlds never failed to
astound me, leaning into the costumes of Holly Waddington similarly. Everything
creates such a vivid world that is then only further populated by incredible
performances and writing that one can’t help but fall for the world that is
presented. Emma Stone of course is our lead and I will be the first to say that
this is certainly the Oscar possibility performance that it is being described
as, with her incredible deftness for physical comedy, accent work, fearlessness
and ability to create a whole arc of change for this character is truly
brilliant work. But I have to also admit that by a certain point in Poor
Things, the stilted voice and shrieking qualities of Bella Baxter does wear
thin for me anyway and pairs well with the overwhelming feeling overall that
this film is just slightly too much for far too long. The same can be said for
Mark Ruffalo who is truly hilalrious and transformative as the cad that is
Duncan Wedderburn. A brilliant performance and again one certainly deserving of
Oscar talk, one of my favourites of the year most certainly. But again by the
final act it all does wear painfully thin for me. Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef
are in a far less outwardly over the top register and in so many ways are far
less grating because of it, however in Youssef’s case he is so juxtaposed to
the rest of the world that at times he even feels out of place. Again, this is
all by clear design and in no way as ill effective as Jarod Carmichael who
feels genuinely out of place with the aesthetic and timbre of the film and
didn’t work for me at all. The ensemble continues and continues with Christopher
Abbot showing up at the very last moment unfortunately for me hindered by the
films pacing and the like and so instead of being excited that we get a new
performance and new character I couldn’t help but feel dismayed at his arrival.
As I have said over and over Poor Things really is one of the best films
of the year on a technical level and in so many others, but just did not work
for me I’m afraid.
An 8/10 that really is one of the best made films of the year without a doubt and yet… Well, this one just did not gel for me. Not to such a detriment that I feel it warrants being knocked down points, because I reiterate in direction, writing, performance and in particular all of the production elements this really is indeed one of the best films of the year. But by the end of its epic run-time for me Poor Things episodic nature led to it feeling outstayed regarding its welcome and even slightly grating and annoying by the final reel. There is a fearlessness and a creativity that awes and astounds and a series of some of the best performances of the year and so one should certainly watch Poor Things at the earliest convenience. But will it be in my top ten of the year? I’m afraid not.
P.S Now I know that all of these points are subjective and I also know that two of my three favourite films of the year were 3 hours long and I did not feel any issues with them. But the eccentricities and quirkiness and absurdity of Poor Things really is so much at times that one can feel overwhelmed and in my case exhausted and by the end despite a fun finale scene, a little bit annoyed.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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