Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Poor Things.
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- Bella was the result of a twisted experiment by Dr. Godwin Baxter, in which the brain of a fetus was transplanted into another person’s body.
- Bella discovers the joys and horrors of being human, explores a hedonistic lifestyle, and outsmarts her narcissistic adversary.
- Bella’s journey ends with her finding her happy self.
Yorgos Lanthimos He has established his own identity as a filmmaker with imaginative and bizarre films such as . lobster and The killing of a sacred deer. his latest movie poor thing It has the same effect, but with a kind heart and refreshing honesty. poor thing assumes classical frankenstein Reenact the story and bring it to life with free-spirited and endearing characters who embark on a free journey to become full-fledged people. The film’s triumph lies in the curious worldview of its main character, Vera Baxter (emma stone). Her perspective is free of unnecessary social and cultural rules., and by the end of the film you feel infected by Vera’s bold, free-spirited approach to life. Here’s how Vera Baxter’s journey unfolds.
poor thing
An incredible story of the fantastical evolution of Vera Baxter, a young woman brought to life by the brilliant and unconventional scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
- release date
- December 8, 2023
How Poor Things’ Vera Baxter was created
We first see Vera Baxter as a young adult whose spiritual growth seems stunted. Her spoken word syntax is adorably insane, and she punches strangers in the face for no apparent reason. It soon turns out that Vera’s body previously belonged to a woman named Victoria who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. The body was discovered by a scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) Victoria realized that even though she was dead, the child inside her was alive. There he conducted vile experiments on human bodies. A fetal brain was transplanted into Victoria’s head and Vera Baxter was born.
As a child, Vera lived with Godwin, seeing him as a father figure and helping him with his surgeries. At the same time, Godwin meets a young student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to help you track Bella’s growth, which seems to be progressing at an alarming rate. Bella even discovers to enjoy herself, and although her conversations at the dinner table become awkward, she is confident that she has found her way to happiness. As Vera’s awareness of her world increases, she begins to venture outside of Godwin’s mansion and she begins to yearn to explore the unknown. However, Godwin does not like the idea of her going out. “She’s an experimenter and I have to control the conditions, otherwise the results won’t be pure.” But despite his ruthless, scientific approach to raising Bella, Well, that’s obvious. Godwin loves her like his own child. There, he senses a romantic spark between Vera and Max and invites them to marry on the condition that they be together forever. Max happily complied with the request, and Bella seemed to agree as well. But before her marriage, Vera ends up being seduced by the cunning Duncan Wedderburn (mark ruffalo), he offers Vera to travel the world with him. Bella also wants to discover, improve, and grow. So she accepts Duncan’s offer.
Bella discovers the joys and terrors of being human
With Duncan’s guidance, Bella explores a hedonistic approach to life, traveling to exotic locations and eating delicious food. She also does “furious jumps” (her euphemism for sex) a lot, and people always wonder why she doesn’t do it. Meanwhile, Duncan had previously taken advantage of his girlfriend Bella, planning to dump her once their relationship ended, but now his obsession with her was growing more and more. So when Bella casually tells him that she received oral sex from another man, he starts crying in jealousy. However, Bella doesn’t seem to understand his complex emotions and quickly grows tired of his pathetic self. – “When I see your sad face, I feel angry towards you.”
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However, the two continue on the run and end up on a cruise ship sailing around the world. There Bella makes her two new friends named Martha (hannah sigula) Harry and the old lady who instilled in him a love of philosophy (Jerrod Carmichael) introduce her to a cynical worldview. Her horizons continue to expand as she begins to read and listen to her friends argue; Vera’s most eye-opening moment is when she sees the poorest people in Alexandria living in the poorest conditions. She immediately goes to the unconscious Duncan and steals all his money to donate to the poor. Duncan is furious when he learns of this, but there is little he can do now. Then Duncan runs out of money, so he and Vera are kicked off the ship in Paris. Duncan is so bitter about the whole incident that Vera gives him an emergency fund to send Duncan home. But Bella sees her broken state as an opportunity for new experiences. And Paris offers her various conditions. She learns about the profession of sex work, she becomes a sex worker, she goes through the ordeal of having to sleep with a man she doesn’t like for money, she marries a French man. The woman’s lover, Toinette (Susie Bemba). Her adventures come to an abrupt end when she receives a letter from Max informing her of Godwin’s failing health.
How will Bella’s journey end in “Poor Things”?
Vera returns home to find Godwin ill and reunites with Max, who still wants to marry her. But before the wedding is over, Duncan intervenes. He sought out and brought Victoria’s girlfriend’s husband, Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott), to disrupt the wedding. Bella is curious about the history of the body she owns, so she leaves Max at the altar and follows her girlfriend, Alfie, to his mansion. Bella asks about Victoria and Alfie tells her that Victoria likes to be cruel to the poor, that she hates babies and that she committed suicide. Although we don’t actually know the truth about her Victoria nature; Alfie has a sinister vibe that makes him suspicious.
Soon, Alfie reveals that he is a vile narcissist and plans to surgically remove Bella’s clitoris in order to control her sexuality. However, Vera manages to outwit him, pouring a chloroform-laced drink over his face and shooting him in the leg.After he collapses, Bella performs a surgery on him similar to the one she performed on herself, but this time She replaces Alfie’s human brain with a goat’s brain. Godwin dies, but his legacy as a surgeon lives on through Vera.at the end of poor thingVera is seen living in the Godwin mansion with Max, Toinette, and the goat Alfie.
poor thing This is a twisted fairy tale from the beginning, one that ultimately delivers Vera her version of happiness. Yes, the film is a journey through the totally absurd, but so is the human experience. But we’re so used to its strange idiosyncrasies that we need the eyes of a fetus to show us just how absurd life really is.
poor thing Now available to stream on Hulu in the US
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