Bella Baxter

Bella is an eighteen year-old girl who, after being reanimated by a brilliant but unorthodox scientist, with the brain of her unborn baby, embarks on a surreal journey of self-discovery and growth.

In Victorian London, medical student Max McCandles becomes an assistant to surgeon Dr. Godwin Baxter and his maid Mrs. Prim. He meets and falls in love with Godwin's ward, a childlike young woman named Bella whose intelligence is rapidly developing. Godwin reveals that the woman, who was pregnant, had committed suicide by leaping off a bridge. He resurrected her by swapping her brain for that of her still-living baby, resulting in her having an infant's mind. When we first meet Bella Baxter, she is banging on a piano, fascinated and delighted by her ability to create cacophonous sounds. Her childhood, if you can call it that, is filled with moments of playful destruction. Bella throws plates, punches a visitor in the face, urinates on the floor, stabs a dead body, and masturbates at the breakfast table. She doesn’t understand why everyone else doesn’t spit out the food they don’t like. Much of the critical focus surrounding Poor Things is whether Bella’s journey towards pleasure and autonomy is feminist enough. But, for me, the heart of the film is not about Bella’s empowerment. It’s about how Bella reckons with pain. Over the course of the film, Bella takes delight in her body, but is also shocked to discover poverty and cruelty, selfishness, and deception. With Godwin's permission, Max asks for Bella's hand in marriage. Bella accepts but desiring freedom as she matures, runs off with foppish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn. Deciding to let Bella go, Godwin starts a new experiment with a young woman named Felicity, whose intelligence is developing much slower than Bella did. Bella and Duncan embark on a grand journey, starting in Lisbon, where the two engage in frequent sex in addition to other forms of hedonism. Bella becomes difficult for Duncan to control so he smuggles her onto a cruise ship for a change of scenery. On the ship, she befriends fellow passengers Martha and Harry and opens her mind to philosophy. An exasperated Duncan starts to indulge in drinking and gambling. During a stop at Alexandria, Bella is profoundly affected after witnessing the misery of the locals. She donates away Duncan's winnings, which are in turn stolen by the crew. Unable to afford the rest of the trip, the two are kicked off the ship at Marseille, after which they make their way to Paris. Having run out of funds, Bella begins working at a brothel, further enraging Duncan and resulting in his mental breakdown, finally leading her to abandon him. At the brothel, she comes under the tutelage of Madame Swiney and befriends fellow prostitute Toinette, who introduces her to socialism. A terminally-ill Godwin asks Max to bring Bella to him. Max locates Bella after tracking down Duncan, who has been institutionalized after his breakdown. Returning to London, Bella reconciles with Godwin and renews her vows with Max. The two are interrupted by Duncan and General Alfie Blessington on their wedding day. Alfie, addressing Bella as Victoria, reveals that they were married before her disappearance and that he has come to reclaim her. Bella abandons Max to learn of her past life. She quickly realizes Alfie's violent and sadistic nature; she had in fact committed suicide to escape their unhappy marriage. He confines Bella to his mansion and threatens her at gunpoint to submit to genital mutilation, demanding she drink a chloroform-laced cocktail to sedate her for the procedure. She tosses the cocktail in his face, causing him to shoot himself in the foot before passing out.