I missed this at the cinema so with the release for home viewing this was at the top of my list to see next. Unlike the majority of those who had watched this at the cinema I have been watching this directors films since the days of Dogtooth, which this is in a similar vein. This is without a doubt this directors first mainstream success in terms of box office.
This is a story based on a Scottish book, however this story does not take place in Scotland, instead the bod to Scotland is Willem Defoe's characters' Scottish accent. His character is apparently some sort of Frankenstein doctor who splices animals of differing species for fun and when offered a newly deceased body of a pregnant female, implants the baby brain into the mothers corpse and brings her back to life. Like Dogtooth the themes of the film focus on the nature/nurture debate and what constitutes free will.
The baby brained woman, Bella displays infantile behaviours and is educated by Dafoe's who takes on a paternal role. Bella develops rapidly into displaying sexual feelings and a pang for independence as she is made aware of the world and seeks to explore it. The bulk of the movie is this journey which she embarks upon with a cad who believes he can claim ownership over her due to her stilted development and naivety of the workings of the world.
While the cinematography is fantastic and some of the humour lands, most of it does not. Also the frequent sex scenes become tedious after a while and this is almost a two and a half hour movie. These scenes add little to the story. There is a potentially problematic aspect to the film, as there is of course the suggestion of someone with a child mind, albeit with an adult body, engaging in sex. There is also the issue of Bella being exploited by both males and females for sex through the film. Agency seems to be an issue in this movie. In terms of character, Bella can either be seen as dangerously impulsive and even at times psychopathic or robotic, there is a distinct lack of emotional intelligence on her part. Which is never really explored as even when she comes to what is assume is full development, she still lacks humanity.
This is not a 8,9 or 10 out of ten movie. This suffers from the same problem of Saltburn, in that there are aspects of this which are sensationalistic, which people who don't understand cinema tend to mistake as being the markings of great cinema. If anything a shorter edit would improve this as too much of the movie is repetition which isn't really required for the story. A good film sure but not a great one due to its shortcomings.
This is a story based on a Scottish book, however this story does not take place in Scotland, instead the bod to Scotland is Willem Defoe's characters' Scottish accent. His character is apparently some sort of Frankenstein doctor who splices animals of differing species for fun and when offered a newly deceased body of a pregnant female, implants the baby brain into the mothers corpse and brings her back to life. Like Dogtooth the themes of the film focus on the nature/nurture debate and what constitutes free will.
The baby brained woman, Bella displays infantile behaviours and is educated by Dafoe's who takes on a paternal role. Bella develops rapidly into displaying sexual feelings and a pang for independence as she is made aware of the world and seeks to explore it. The bulk of the movie is this journey which she embarks upon with a cad who believes he can claim ownership over her due to her stilted development and naivety of the workings of the world.
While the cinematography is fantastic and some of the humour lands, most of it does not. Also the frequent sex scenes become tedious after a while and this is almost a two and a half hour movie. These scenes add little to the story. There is a potentially problematic aspect to the film, as there is of course the suggestion of someone with a child mind, albeit with an adult body, engaging in sex. There is also the issue of Bella being exploited by both males and females for sex through the film. Agency seems to be an issue in this movie. In terms of character, Bella can either be seen as dangerously impulsive and even at times psychopathic or robotic, there is a distinct lack of emotional intelligence on her part. Which is never really explored as even when she comes to what is assume is full development, she still lacks humanity.
This is not a 8,9 or 10 out of ten movie. This suffers from the same problem of Saltburn, in that there are aspects of this which are sensationalistic, which people who don't understand cinema tend to mistake as being the markings of great cinema. If anything a shorter edit would improve this as too much of the movie is repetition which isn't really required for the story. A good film sure but not a great one due to its shortcomings.