Poor Things Review
I was finally able to check out Poor Things yesterday. This is a movie that got 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. I’ve been very curious about this movie, the trailers and buzz surrounding it intrigued me. What did I think about it? Let’s find out in my review!
The Good:
The first thing I wanted to talk about here are the performances. The two ones I wanted to talk about were Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. Both of them got nominated for Oscars, so I went into the movie paying attention to their performances a bit more. Both of them deserve nominations and acclaim for their roles, both of them are able to disappear into their roles. As of now, Emma Stone is the front runner for Best Actress, rightfully so. She goes for it, she’s able to portray this naive and innocent woman. But then as the movie goes along, starts to get a mind of her own. She becomes her own person by the end of it and you see Emma Stone’s full acting range on display here. She can be funny, she can be charming, she can be dramatic. This is a very complex character and she’s able to portray all of the complexities of the characters really nicely. Mark Ruffalo is really good here, the character is so weird and manipulative. He has all of these mannerisms with the way he talks, moves, everything about him is so weird and quirky. I haven’t really explored much of Ruffalo’s filmography outside of the MCU. This character is so different from Bruce Banner, that it reminds you that he’s a world class actor. When he’s given a script like this, he can deliver something really good.
Another aspect of the film that worked for me was the dark humor. It’s this interesting sense of humor, because most of the jokes are related to body parts. The nature of Emma Stone’s character of playing this person who doesn’t understand life, she’ll say these things that shouldn’t be said in public. Some of the mannerisms of Mark Ruffalo’s character make you chuckle with what he does. Even some of the weirdness of the movie, the images at Willem Dafoe’s house is really strange, but that’s why it’s funny. It’s funny because it is so weird and dark, in the final moments they mix two species together. I don’t want to say anything beyond that, but if you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about.
It’s also a movie where you can tell a lot of thought and detail went into it. I keep on saying this whenever I review more prestigious movies. But they start to stand out a bit more to me because so many movies in 2023 felt generic, with microwaved scripts. Movies that felt like they could have been directed by any person and the end result would have been about the same. This movie doesn’t feel like that, the director Yorgos Lanthimos is a very prestigious director. He previously directed The Favorite, another Best Picture nominee from 2018. He’s said this has been a passion project for him since 2009, he’s wanted to get this movie made for years. The nature of the story, the script, everything about it you can tell that he thought through this movie. Even the cinematography the way it’ll frame shots has a very distinct flavor and vision to it. It almost feels like you’re watching a dream, you’re watching Emma Stone’s character dream about life and being human.
Finally, this goes back to what I just said but it’s this exploration of life and humanity in a very interesting way. The story is Frankenstein, Willem Dafoe’s character is the scientist and Emma Stone is the monster. Mark Ruffalo takes Emma Stone on this adventure and teaches her to have intimate moments with him. Without spoiling too much, it makes you view humanity differently after you watch it. There’s a sense where it’s about female empowerment, women learning to not be controlled by men. But the movie never gets preachy about it. You really feel like you’ve gone on this journey with Emma Stone’s character and life. I heard one person describe it as a romantic comedy, but the romance happens between Stone and humanity. There’s some truth to that, I can very much see where those similarities come from.
The Bad:
The big thing here, the movie is longer than it needs to be. It’s about 2 hours and 21 minutes long, you feel that run time. There’s three or four different times where I thought the film was going to end, then it keeps on going. Especially in the middle act, the movie goes on some rapid trails that didn’t serve the plot. There’s like a 20 minute sequence where Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo are on this boat to Paris. I don’t know if that sequence needed to be as long as it was. They could have cut that sequence in half, ignoring some of the conflict there. Then once they get Paris, Emma Stone finds a job and spends about 20 minutes on this. The movie was very much trying to communicate something, I felt like pretty early on the audience was able to understand. This movie could have been shortened by 20-30 minutes, it might have worked better for me.
This isn’t something the movie gets wrong or does poorly. This movie really isn’t for me, I figured that going in. This is an example of a movie that I probably wouldn’t have watched if it wasn’t getting Best Picture nominations or anything like that. The trailers made it look interesting and something different. I knew as soon as I saw the trailers the movie was going to get award love. I can respect this movie, I can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into it. Yorgos Lanthimos is a director with a vision and a style. If you don’t jive with that, this movie probably isn’t going to be for you. Again, it’s not an issue with the film. But it’s something that does hold back just how much I can enjoy it.
Final Thoughts: In a lot of ways, Poor Things was the exact movie I expected it to be. It had great performances, I wouldn’t be shocked if Emma Stone ends up taking home an Oscar for this movie. The movie can be both funny and thought provoking at points. At the same time, the movie is too long. It shouldn’t have been as long as it was and it’s very rewatchable. I don’t know when I’ll ever rewatch this movie, I don’t know if I will. I can see why this is a movie that is absolutely getting award love, I didn’t love it however.
The Score: 8.2/10 (B-)
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