Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Poor Things’

The Big Picture

Bella was created through a twisted experiment by Dr. Godwin Baxter, transferring an unborn child’s brain into another’s body.
Bella discovers the pleasures and horrors of being human, explores a hedonistic lifestyle, and outsmarts a narcissistic antagonist.
Bella’s journey concludes with her finding a version of her happily ever after.

Yorgos Lanthimos has carved up a unique identity for himself as a filmmaker with imaginatively bizarre movies such as The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. His latest film Poor Things achieves the same effect, but it does so with a tender heart and a refreshing dose of sincerity. Poor Things takes the premise of the classic Frankenstein story and reanimates it with a free-spirited, lovable character who sets out on a liberating journey to becoming a full-fledged human. The victory of the movie lies in the curious worldview of its protagonist, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone). Her perspective is unadulterated from the unnecessary social and cultural rules, and by the end of the movie, you feel infected with Bella’s bold, free-spirited approach to life. Here’s how the journey of Bella Baxter plays out.

Poor Things The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.Release Date December 8, 2023

How Was Bella Baxter Created In ‘Poor Things’
We first see Bella Baxter as a young adult whose mental growth seems to have been stunted: her spoken syntax is adorably off, and she smacks strangers in the face for no apparent reason. Soon we learn that Bella’s body previously belonged to a woman named Victoria who killed herself by jumping off a cliff. The body was discovered by a scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) who realized that though Victoria was dead, the child within her was very much alive. So, he conducts an ungodly experiment on the body, transferring the unborn child’s brain into the head of Victoria, thus creating Bella Baxter.

During her early years, Bella lives with Godwin, viewing him as a father figure and assisting him in his surgeries. At the same time, Godwin enlists a young student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to help him track Bella’s growth, who seems to be progressing at an astonishing speed. Bella even discovers self-pleasure, and though it makes for awkward dining table conversation, she’s convinced that she’s uncovered the path to happiness. As Bella grows more aware of the world, she yearns to travel outside Godwin’s mansion and explore what lies in the unknown. But Godwin doesn’t like the idea of her going out – “She’s an experiment and I must control the conditions otherwise our results will not be pure.” Despite his cold, scientific approach to raising Bella, however, it’s obvious Godwin loves her like his own child. So, when he senses a romantic spark between Bella and Max, he urges the two to get married on the condition that they stay with him forever. Max happily obliges to the request and Bella seems to agree too. But before they get married, Bella gets seduced by a sly Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), who offers Bella to travel the world with him. Bella also wants to discover, improve, and grow, so she accepts Duncan on his offer.

Bella Discovers the Pleasures and Horrors of Being a Human

Guided by Duncan, Bella explores the hedonistic approach to life whereby she travels to exotic places and eats delicious food. She also does a lot of “furious jumping” (her euphemism for sex) and wonders why people don’t do it all the time. Meanwhile, Duncan had previously planned to take advantage of Bella and dump her after he was done with her, but now he was growing increasingly obsessive about her. So, when Bella nonchalantly tells him that she received oral sex from another man, he starts weeping from jealousy. But Bella doesn’t seem to understand his complex feelings and soon grows tired of his pathetic self – “Your sad face makes me discover angry feelings for you.”

Related ‘Poor Things’ Review: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos Create a Weird World in One of the Year’s Best Movies Also starring Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, ‘Poor Things’ is a staggering vision from Yorgos Lanthimos.

Still, the two continue with their escapades and end up on a cruise ship sailing across the world. There, Bella makes two new friends – Martha (Hanna Schygulla) an old woman who instills a love of Philosophy in her, and Harry (Jerrod Carmichael) who introduces her to a cynical worldview. Her horizon continues to expand further as she picks up reading and hears her friends argue, but Bella’s most eye-opening moment comes in Alexandria when she sees the poor population living in the most destitute conditions. She immediately goes to a passed-out Duncan and steals all his money to donate to the poor. Duncan grows furious when he learns this, but there’s little he can do now. And now that Duncan is out of money, he and Bella get kicked off the boat in Paris. Duncan is very bitter about the whole affair, so Bella gives him her emergency fund to send him off home. But Bella sees her broke condition as an opportunity for new experiences. And Paris provides her with a mixed bag of it – she learns about the profession of sex work and becomes a sex worker, she goes through the ordeal of having to sleep with men she doesn’t like for money, and she takes on a French female lover, Toinette (Suzy Bemba). Her adventures come to an abrupt end when she receives a letter from Max informing her of Godwin’s deteriorating health.

How Does Bella’s Journey Conclude In ‘Poor Things’?
Image via Searchlight Pictures

Bella returns home to find Godwin in a sickly condition and reunites with Max, who still wishes to marry her. But before their wedding ceremony can conclude, Duncan intervenes. He has tracked down and brought along Victoria’s husband, Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott), to sabotage the wedding. Since Bella had been curious about the history of the body she possesses, she leaves Max at the altar and follows Alfie to his manor. Bella inquires about Victoria and Alfie tells her that Victoria enjoyed being cruel to poor people and that she killed herself because she hated the baby. Though we don’t actually learn the truth about Victoria’s nature, there is a sinister air about Alfie that makes him feel distrustful.

Soon enough, Alfie reveals himself to be a despicable narcissist who’s hatching a plan to surgically remove Bella’s clitoris to control her sexuality. But Bella manages to outsmart him, splashing a chloroform-laced drink in his face and shooting him in the foot. After he’s down, Bella conducts surgery on him, similar to one conducted on herself, but this time she replaces Alfie’s human brain with that of a goat. Godwin dies, but his legacy as a surgeon lives on through Bella. At the end of Poor Things, we see Bella living in Godwin’s mansion alongside the company of Max, Toinette, and Goat Alfie.

Poor Things is a twisted fairy tale from the get-go, and in the end, it delivers Bella her version of happily ever after. Indeed, the movie is an absolutely absurd journey, but so is the experience of being a human. But we have grown so used to the odd idiosyncrasies of it all that it requires the eyes of an unborn infant to show us how absurd life truly is.

Poor Things is now available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

Watch on Hulu