The title "Poor Things" refers to a broad spectrum of characters within the story who are depicted as vulnerable, exploited, or trapped by societal constraints and their own desires, reflecting a universal sense of human frailty and struggle. It serves as an expression of empathy for these characters, from Bella Baxter, who navigates a harsh world with newfound awareness, to the various individuals she encounters. The title highlights the tragic nature of their conditions and the inherent suffering in the world, making it a central theme of the narrative.
Jacob has promised to take Bella cliff diving but has to go off with the pack when Leah phased. Bella feels powerless in this moment and I think might have realised and loathed her dependence of Jacob, Edward and other supernatural characters. So, she decided to jump by herself, to feel powerful in her own right.
Not one mention is made by critics of the fact that the name of “God”, Godwin Baxter, is a nod to William Godwin, who brought his daughters up to live their lives as freely as men. “God” is a more twisted version of “William Godwin”, but young Mary believed she, like her mother, was free to live like a man.
This idea of the grotesque is also partially explored through Swiney – the heavily tattooed madam who occasionally becomes so overcome by her desire for youth and beauty that she will bite – literally trying to consume the beauty of others.
The experiments Godwin's own father practiced on him in his youth have left him disfigured with bodily functions that don't quite work as they should. Yet, Godwin is tender and paternal in his treatment of Bella as her mind rapidly matures.
Poor Things, Explained: Empowering or Exploitative?
Was the baby alive in Poor Things?
Baxter tells his student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), Bella was found floating in the Thames, a would-be suicide. She was dead, but the nearly born fetus inside her was alive. So Dr. Baxter transferred the baby's brain into Bella's skull, and has been raising her in the Baxter house.
Bella partially realises that she was Victoria, and that she killed herself to escape Alfie. Alfie confines Bella to his mansion and tells her that he plans to have her clitoris removed and impregnate her, threatening her with a gun and demanding she drink a sedative. She tosses the sedative in his face.
Throughout the film, the lens often designates feelings of confinement or confusion. Since Bella is a child transplanted into an adult body, the extreme vignette acts as her peephole into the world. The further she feels from the people around her, the tighter the lens constricts.
Poor Things asks, in particular, what would it be like for a woman to live without shame? Like Frankenstein, it's an allegory about God and man, but inside out.
Poor Things is a film about innocence, about discovery, about human nature. It makes us question the way we view things, the way we censor behaviour, the way we impose societal norms upon each other, and how seeing those norms disregarded can be both disturbing and exhilarating.
His father canonically pinned his thumbs in an experiment to slow bone growth and branded his genitals with hot irons in the name of science. At one point, Godwin explains that he has to make his own gastric juices because his father took out his oxyntic and pyloric glands.
Alfie appears to disrupt Bella's wedding with relatively nice guy Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), sardonically asking whether the church had gone too woke for objections. He puts on his best romantic, yearning act, and convinces Bella to go to his manor with him out of curiosity.
Her story in “Poor Things” serves as a medium for learning about the importance of recognising and respecting the emotions of others, thereby underlining the significance of emotional intelligence.
Actress Emma Stone has defended graphic sex scenes in Yorgos Lanthimos's Oscar-tipped film Poor Things, saying they are true to her character's experience. Stone plays Bella, a woman brought back to life using the brain of her unborn child by an unconventional scientist.
As they bounce across Europe, it's obvious Duncan's only interest in Bella is her disinterest in him. The more attention she gives to other pursuits, the more Duncan's jealousy flares, and his professions of love coincide with his outbursts of jealousy. Duncan doesn't love Bella, though.
Poor Things Ending Explained - IMDb. Bella ends up living happily at Godwin's estate and swapping Alfie's brain with a goat. Bella's choice to leave Max at the altar for Alfie hints at her curiosity and desire for truth. Duncan reunites Bella and Alfie out of spite and control, but she eventually breaks free.
The film's themes have led to backlash, with some claiming that the fact it has a male director, and therefore a male gaze, makes it sexist. There have also been accusations that the nudity is exploitative and that, because Bella has the brain of a child, there are consent issues at play.
Rivalry – Earl Godwin had been involved in the murder of Edward's brother Alfred in 1036 on a trip to England from Normandy, while the Danes were still ruling England. Earl Godwin had become the most powerful English earl by supporting the Danish kings, including eliminating any rivals to their power.
