Poor Things

I’m not usually comfortable starting threads, especially on this board; however, I’m interested if anyone else has seen Poor Things and would like to discuss it. If there is already a thread about this movie, forgive me, I didn’t see it and the search was negative.

Poor Things is a substantial movie and after seeing it, I found I had lots of things to think through.

It’s certainly quirky in many ways and intended to be surreal. I found its mood rather dark, but almost unintentionally so. Or rather, the it starts with may presupposition that include a generally dim view of reality and human existence in general.

Like the original Frankenstein, it chooses the theme of man playing God, being a creator of life. But unlike the original, it doesn’t seem to come to the conclusion that we aren’t equipped to be god-like, and we make a mess of things when we try. The original had a sort of Tower of Babble message to it.

Poor Things seems to be saying that reality is truly messed up, especially the oppressive culture (civilization, male patriarchy, capitalism, etc.) and that our experimentation in playing god is no worse, and perhaps is better since it tears down the abusive parts of culture.

I could go into great detail about the false presuppositions this movie makes, especially in the realm of sexuality, but I would first like to hear other perspectives.

Regarding the production of the film, it was top notch. The use of color (black and white, sepia, various monochromes, pastels, etc) certainly had symbolic meanings, some more intelligible to me than others.

Emma Stone’s acting was excellent, maybe award worthy, but I personally did not find her that attractive, which was a problem in this particular role.

Mark Ruffalo was good but not great. His portrayal suffered in the later acts, IMO.

Willem DaFoe was as outstanding as you would expect. Probably deserves an Oscar.

In the end, I really didn’t like how the film concluded or how the main character was able to grow and develop. Her story arc (which was massive) simply wasn’t properly supported or explained in many ways.

(Small spoiler alert below:)




Are we supposed to just take for granted that this strange journey was simply explainable by an infant’s mind being placed in an adult body? If so, that might have been a more fun journey, but the messaging was much more Hegelian than that.

I’m very curious to hear what others think.