Based on a novel by the same name, Poor Things follows the story of Bella, a grown up woman with an implanted brain of a fetus who discovers the world of patriarchy and socialism through her rapidly accelerated mental growth. As weird and bizarre as the premise sounds, the story here is perhaps the most unique piece of writing that I have witnessed in years. It is simplistic and hilarious while not being extremely difficult to understand yet there are so many complex themes that demanded your comprehension. And this is what sets the writing apart from most content that I have ended up watching this year given that it has a sense of madness associated with the layered messaging packaged in a screenplay standing at a shade under 140 minutes thereby making it entertaining and hilarious.

The drama opens in bizarre fashion with a glimpse of two of the many principal characters – an eccentric surgeon almost resembling Frankenstein while the other Bella, a fully grown woman who is shown to act in a childish manner. Soon the surgeon appoints an assistant to collect data of Bella wherein the assistant realises that something is amiss, only to be told by his master that Bella was actually a woman who had committed suicide while still being pregnant(and the young fetus was alive). And as a part of an experiment, he had implanted the brain of the fetus in the young woman to give rise to Bella whose intellect was rapidly developing with every passing day. This, while we are told that the surgeon(who is a eunuch) wishes to ignite feelings between Bella and his assistant who seemingly takes a liking for her.

The character of Bella was superbly penned while the writers did make a conscious creative choice of unfolding the drama through her gaze. So initially, you do notice Bella to be in her own cacoon almost protected to a point wherein she is studied for her behavior without quite letting her out of their sight by the surgeon and his assistant. But it is when Bella discovers ‘touch’ for the first time is when she wishes to explore the world in a fascinating case study pivoted around her brain which was like a little sponge. She wished for someone to ‘furiously jump’ on her while she was a free bird wishing to experience pleasure even at the cost of being treated as a tool for it by a vicious and debauched man of little integrity.

Even though the drama is set in the Victorian era, the issues remain relevant to even the current timeline. The patriarchy is prevalent in the drama wherein all men around Bella wish to control her by their individual thoughts and beliefs. This is represented in a wonderful scene involving the debauched man wishing to dance with Bella only for her to cut loose and dance solo by freeing her arms. Along the way, Bella also discovers pain towards others coupled by empathy that makes her give out all the riches of her debauched ‘lover’ much to his dismay. This, while she slowly starts developing a philosophical outlook towards life with bouts of socialism that she experiences in her new job involving prostitution wherein she is told to sleep with men against her wishes while briefly forming a bond with a fellow colleague.

The proceedings are hilarious and entertaining that continue right through the final act as well that traces its roots to the beginning of the film. In the final act, you do get to know about the husband of Victoria(the woman who had died with a fetus inside her only to be woken up as Bella). He is an authoritative entity almost controlling all her actions even to the smallest actions of Bella. But herein also lies a layered detail – Victoria and Bella may look similar but mentally they aren’t the same person. Victoria may not have explored the wrongdoings of the world whereas Bella at a tender mental age was well versed with the same, and this prompts her to continue the legacy of her father-surgeon(who is on his death bed) by continuing with the experiments on her husband in a hilarious twist at the end. And this was the epitome of feminism, to demand equal rights to genders without being controlled in any manner – something that this brilliant screenplay highlighted in a seemingly enjoyable manner.