The Frankenstein lesson on finding our identity
By Wendell Gaa
The story of Frankenstein has fascinated me for a very long time, given how different it is from other popular lore in the horror genre.
Unlike Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, I’ve always found Frankenstein to be the most sympathetic of the classic cinematic “monsters” which Hollywood has brought to life on the big screen. When watching several different film versions of the Frankenstein monster, you realize how this famous creature of pop culture reveals to us our society’s human tendencies to misunderstand those who are different and ostracize them when we feel threatened.
Another timeless theme which Frankenstein is iconic for, and what many people may tend to overlook, is the need for identity, discovering who we are, our place in this world and the role and responsibility we have in civilization.
These universally relatable topics are strongly conveyed in this year’s Oscar-nominated “Poor Things,” a brilliant new cinematic take on Frankenstein which stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a young lady in 19th century-era Victorian England who dies yet is reanimated through an experimental brain transplant by Dr. Godwin Baxter, the film’s de facto Dr. Frankenstein portrayed by the always magnificent Willem Dafoe, who becomes a father figure for the resurrected “monster” Bella.
Dr. Baxter reveals to his medical assistant Max McCandles (played by Egyptian-American actor and New York native Ramy Youssef) that Bella was a pregnant woman who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge to her death. In bringing her back to life, Baxter had replaced her brain with that of the unborn fetus of her child with whom she was pregnant with when she died. This leads Bella to act and behave with the literal mind of an infant. With this condition, Bella then begins a journey to understand and discover who she truly is.
As Bella’s mind and mannerisms evolve from being mechanical, to child-like, and then to seasoned intelligence and advanced lust for worldly delights which even include sexual pleasure, Max grows to have feelings for Bella, and with Dr. Godwin’s blessing, he goes on to propose marriage. Bella initially accepts, but then as she becomes increasingly more aware and perceptive, she expresses a desire to join a cultured lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo of “Avengers” fame) on a tour to Portugal, Egypt and France which are all part of a grand odyssey to understand where exactly she came from, who she was before her death, why she ended up killing herself, and what destiny in her “reborn” life she wishes to pursue in the here and after. What she ultimately becomes is how the film comes to form her personal philosophy and ideology.
“Poor Things,” directed by rising Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, is a rather quirky and eccentric film which may take a slow time to appreciate, but upon paying close attention, you will come to realize how it is a superb piece of cinematic art which in an superbly twisted way has literally “resurrected” the legend of Frankenstein and all the mature lessons which it has to remind us on the importance of finding ourselves and our place in this world.
This movie is no doubt owned and anchored by Emma Stone who is so worthy of her Best Actress Oscar nomination this year for giving the peculiar Bella a talented combination of fear, perplexity and compassion. As evident from this performance and her Best Actress Oscar win for the musical “La La Land” back in 2017, she is undeniably showing signs of becoming the next Meryl Streep!
© The FilAm 2024
