Poor Things is an absurdly kooky tale of self-discovery within a world set with pre-constructed normalities and expectations; not to mention the Frankensteninian undertones. A upside down, brightly coloured gothic, with a witty, uncensored dialogue between the individuals of the world. From beginning to end we are shown the progression of one woman's pursuit of independence through experience, conversation and literature. Accompanying this is stunning imagery, unusual camera angles/effects and a contrast of grayscale to colour film as the story progresses. 

In the opening scene we are met with who we will soon discover to be Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), our focus of the soon to be unravelling events. She is contorted at a piannon, both hands and feet at the keys, silence engulfs the moment, until suddenly she strikes the keys with all four extremities; creating a large clash of notes. Then, once more, silence. She repeats this action a couple of times, stunned each time by her ability to create such sounds.

This is our first introduction to this woman, with the mind like that of a child, it is clear that something is not right. Which leaves us with a strong curiosity and questioning of the strange environment that has only just begun to be shown to us. 

From here we observe her progression alongside her God,  her father in one sense of the word, Godwin Baxter (William Dafoe) and the young man assigned to take notes of Bella’s progression Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef). We watch as her hair grows, her speech develops and her ability to comprehend herself and her surroundings take hold. Soon she comes to understand the difference between the outside world, and the constructed black and white environment that she has been locked away in by her God. Bella’s lust for the unknown and hunger for what she has not been allowed to have consumes her, and quickly sets her out of the dreary London  atmosphere. 

The first of the next four parts is a pleasure-filled trip to Lisbon, Portugal, where Bella  fills her days with sex, sugar and street wandering. Accompanied by her new found male lover, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), Bella begins to develop and understand what freedom is away from the protective eye of her God and his assistant. This independence is soon halted by Duncan’s lover-ish obsession, which Bella does not understand, nor does she particularly care for. Her desire for experience becomes one of promiscuous fascination, which sends Duncan  into a jealous fit, leading to his entrapment of Bella on a cruise ship. With-in the metal walls of the ship Bella is set on a path of philosophical questioning towards the world and the idea of good and evil. With this her speech develops, her fine motor skills improve and her thoughts of humanity are left with a looming question mark. Soon Bella finds herself in Paris, with a bitter Duncan. They are tight on money, and Bella, tight on sexual relief. She takes all of this with her head held high, looking at the circumstances as a chance for a kind of experiment. Bella stumbles in upon a parisian brothel, and beginnes her time “whoring”.  This part of her escapade lasts her a good few months, or perhaps weeks, the timeline is not quite clear. However, she is finally on her own, after Duncan  became fed up with her, he took the money Bella was given by her God and cursed her to oblivion. Now truly free from the grasp of the desires of man, Bella is opened to the brutal and cruel life of solitude. She soon grows tired and numb to sex, as she experiences the gross picking of women by the male clientele of the brothel. Bella, desperate for something more than sex, starts to consume more and more philosophy, politics, and science to fill the hole that intimate pleasure had once before. 

With this shift of demeanour, Bella’s  wardrobe turns almost completely black; a stark difference from her previous yellows, whites and blues. She begins to tame and tie back her extremely long hair, which she had let flow freely before.

In the final part of our story, Bella  is called back to London,  as her God  is grasping to the final days of this mortality. She returns, completely changed from when she had left. Now a kind of dark, bruting woman, who sees the world in a similar vein to that of her God - scientific before all else. Her time spent back in London is the final step to Bella fully discovering and understanding who she is. God  and his assistant finally divulge the secrets of Bella’s  existence to Bella, which rightfully outrages her, particularly to the fact she was never let in on the knowledge of where she came from. Bella  is now inraptured by the possibility of her former life, and after the opportunity to live as she had before there ever was a Bella Baxter is offered, she jumps at it. However, this hunger for her past quickly shifts into her captivity once again. This time by the violent, devilish brute Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott) who remembers Bella  as his Victoria,  his wife. The realisation of Bella’s cruel and melancholy past was abrupt. She soon is grateful for the life of that she has been able to live as Bella Baxter. 

Bella  manages the escape of this third and final prison, coming back triumphantly to her kooky London  townhouse, for her first experiment. Following in their God's  footsteps, Bella  and Max  create one final frankenstined creature for the Baxter home, which involves Alfi’s body and a goat brain. Now mistress of the house, Bella has at last found what she was so ravenous for before; her independence, her freedom, herself.