I've been waiting for this one to finally become available on my Plex server for a while. It finally came down yesterday and even though it was quite late I decided to start it up anyway despite the looming witching hour. I figured I would fall asleep or turn it off halfway through and that was almost exactly what I did because the way that it starts out feels like one of those artsy films that is designed to win Academy Awards while having no real appeal to massive audiences. At times the director decisions seemed like the work of a film school student who has no budget but is instead focusing on trying to do things in a different and odd way in order to get attention.
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Now I am going to say this right out of the gate: This film is WEIRD and it's that exact strangeness that is going to chase people with a low attention span away from it in the first 30 minutes. It moves very slowly at first but if you can manage to make it through those slow 30 minutes you will be rewarded with one of the better movies that I have seen in a long time.
Be warned as well though that this is not something you should watch with younger kids because there is a ton of sex in it. I was unaware of this going into it but others may have known beforehand and the fact that many people likely already knew that Emma Watson spends a great deal of time in this with her clothes off, may have been a motivation for many to watch it.
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I don't want to spoil things too much because it is more interesting to discover it as you go along but basically Emma plays the starring role of "Bella" and "Bella" is a fully grown woman who has diminished mental capabilities to the point where she behaves like a toddler and is frequently a danger to others and herself because of this. One other character says something along the lines of "she is quite beautiful for a retard" and I am surprised that they put that line is seeing as how the world is so triggered by that word these days. The film takes place in what at first appears to be the 1800's or something and believe it or not "retard" is actually a medical term to this day, despite what PC rules appeared in the past 10 years or so.
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Willem Dafoe plays the role of Dr. Godwin who is frequently referred by Bella and others simply as "God." He is an unconventional scientist who is considered one of the most brilliant minds of his time by his unseen peers but he also has a penchant for "science at all costs" including mutilating various animals and putting their bodies together such as a bulldog with a duck's head and a bulldog head with a duck body. This is how they introduce us to the fact that somehow, Bella is in fact a creation of his - but I am not going to reveal how that came to be.
"God" acts as a father figure of sorts for Bella and is extremely protective of her since she has the mind of a toddler including not having full capability of speech. She has a playful manner and seeks to destroy things constantly, much like a toddler actually would if they were large enough to reach the plates on the table.
Eventually, Bella's curiosity gets the best of her and she gains enough intellect over an amount of time that we, the audience, are not made aware of, and she is permitted to go out into the world for the first time in her life.
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She approaches everything as a child would in that she has no fear of what others think of her and is routinely the life of the party because of this. The way that she dresses is also the way that a child would dress in that every time she leaves her room she is dressed like a fairy princess or something else equally ridiculous. Yet her beauty and fearlessness of what others think is precisely why others are drawn to her even if she ends up being quite crude at times. There is something else that draws others to her, but I am not going to tell you what that is... you'll have to watch the film to figure that out but let's just say that there is a reason why someone as attractive as Emma Stone was chosen for this role. I'm seriously impressed that Emma pulled off this role as it couldn't have been easy for her to film. You'll see why if you wisely decide to watch this movie.
While the direction and cinematography of the film can sometimes seem a bit strange switching back and forth between black and white and then to almost overly colorful, there is likely some sort of film-school fishing-for-awards something or other that is going on there.
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I am not artsy or refined enough to figure out why, but many of the scenes are suddenly shown through a "peep hole" lens of sorts. Some of this I found annoying and others I just kind of went with it and accepted that they were going to for something different here and well, I can appreciate that since almost all films that make money these days seem to be carbon copies of one another and that is just boring.
This story is definitely something different and many are stating that it is one of the 10 best films of 2023. I think I agree with this idea but since I watch films from across all times and dont focus on any particular year, I don't think I could name 9 other films from 2023 even though I am quite certain I have seen that many.
Should I watch it?
I genuinely think that you should but please go into this understanding that the first 20 minutes or so are going to be quite boring. I don't know why they did this but the pace picks up dramatically from that point forward. I suppose it was necessary for character development. What do i know? I didn't go to film school I just like watching movies. Unlike the cookie-cutter superhero films of late this is definitely something different and more thought provoking. The idea of a woman entering the world with no inhibitions is pretty exhilarating and refreshing and Stone absolutely nails this role, as does almost everyone else in the cast. There is only one actor that seemed a bit out of place in the entire thing.
Unlike other good films seeking an audience, this one actually did find the audience and made $70 million over their budget with very little in the way of promotion. Fantastic! Now I hope other film-makers can carry on so that theaters don't have to be dominated with stupid Marvel and D.C. remakings of essentially the same movie over and over. This film has already been nominated for and won many awards and it will likely be highly regarded at the Oscars as well.
At the moment the only legal way to watch this film is to purchase it on Amazon Prime or AppleTV+. It is $10... this will likely change as time goes by. Searchlight is owned by Disney, so I would imagine Hulu or Disney+ will be the first places it can be streamed