STARRING: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christoper Abbott and Jerrod Carmichael. Written by Tony McNamara. Based on the book, Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. Budget $35 million. Running time 142 minutes.
An astonishing film. Visually staggering, brilliantly acted by everyone, Emma Stone is outstanding, Ruffalo is a delight, and Defoe just does what he does best.
The story, a bizarre twist on the Frankenstein story, and set in an alternative Victorian London sees the rise and rise of Bella Baxter, a strange young girl who we discover isn't all she seems to be. Brought up by her guardian, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe),a visionary scientist and surgeon, whom she calls God, which makes sense when you realise their relationship. Incredibly naive and childlike, she falls under the spell of roguish and hedonistic lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) who introduces her to sex and whisks her away for a romp across Europe, all the while Bella becomes less childlike and more a powerful and independent woman who embraces every experience to become the queen of all she surveys.
It's a film not easily synopsised and truly has to be experienced on the big screen, it's a film that'll stay with you long after it is over, it's a film rich in detail, design and production design, a film that starts in black and white and turns to a deep and truly textured full coloured world of extraordinary vision.
Directed with pure vision, with a superb soundtrack and a performance from Stone which is so pure, so raw and so passionate it propels the film into something unique and visionary.
Sadly, despite all this greatness the film is too long, if only it had been 20 minutes shorter then it would have been a solid 10/10, sadly though the running time and the somewhat repetitive nature of Bella's adventures in Paris tested my patience beyond endurance.
That said, perhaps on a second viewing I won't mind the length, as the actress said to the bishop.
Still, this is a truly unique, extraordinary and superb film worthy of your time.
9/10
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