Poor Things (2023)

Watching Poor Things felt like watching a very good Terry Gilliam movie.  There's an interesting alternate-Victorian world, interesting camera shots, and good actors playing unusual characters in the style of a James Whale production.  

There are numerous sex scenes in the middle act that started to feel gratuitous.

The initial direction of the story is good: "what if a person tried to live according to experimentation and scientific thought?"  Though really not simply a person, because while Bella is our protagonist, Godwin models this behavior for her, as does Max (though Max is positioned as more of a partner than teacher).

Unfortunately I think the film sabotages its story in the final minutes.

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Bella's character at her core is non-violent, against doing permanent harm to others, and looking to improve herself and the world around her.  That is, right up until she replaces Victoria Blessington's husband's brain with that of a goat (or sheep), and the final scene has her sipping gin in her father's garden.  I was shocked that she hadn't put Godwin's brain into Alfie's body!  Godwin had a tortured childhood and lived in a body marked by scars that people stared at; if Bella put his brain into Alfie's body, she could allow him to go on his own adventure of discovery, closing the circle of the story that began with Godwin letting Bella go.  As is, Alfie's fate is purely retribution.