Poor creatures: the end of the novel calls the entire film into question!
The final chapter of Alasdair Gray’s original book offers an alternative version of the story.
Warning, this article contains spoilers.
As you can imagine, most of the time, a book is more comprehensive than its film adaptation. Take the example of Harry Potter, whose books reveal many more details and characters than in the films, even if they remain a very faithful adaptation. But we have rarely, if ever, seen a book whose ending completely changes the outcome of its adaptation into a film! Well this is the case of Poor creatures.
The new film of Yorgos Lanthimos stars Bella (Emma Stone), a young woman resurrected by the science of Dr. Godwin Baxter (William Dafoe). He recovered the body of the young pregnant woman who had recently committed suicide to bring her back to life by implanting her baby’s brain. We then follow the wanderings of a child in the body of an adult, forced to relearn how to live and exist. For the most curious among you, this film is adapted from the eponymous novel byAlasdair Grayavailable from Métailié editions.
But then how can a novel written well before the film call it into question? At the end of the feature film Yorgos LanthimosBella Baxter “grew up” through her experiences and her fabulous trip around the world where she discovered her sexuality with a mean-spirited seducer (Mark Ruffalo) as well as the infinite nuances between good and evil. She eventually returned to Scotland to her protector and mentor Godwin to marry Max McCandless (Ramy Youssef), Baxter’s assistant, madly in love with her.
So far everything is faithful to the novel, except the form. The film is staged solely from Bella’s point of view, whom the viewer follows on her journey, while in the novel, Alasdair Gray written from multiple points of view of different characters. Bella’s journey is only understood through the letters she sends to McCandless and Baxter and who read them to the reader. The writer is playing with us since we are never with Bella unlike in the film.
Beyond this distance placed with its main character, Alasdair Gray puts the coup de grace in its last chapter. His work is constructed as if we were holding authentic documents in our hands. He concludes his novel with a letter signed by Bella Baxter, now Victoria McCandless (her former identity before her suicide) who explains in around ten pages that everything we have just read is nothing but a pure lie of the from her husband… WHAT?
She addresses her potential descendants who might come across this story by warning them of the fabrication and absurd nature of this story. She also rewrites her entire epic, denying having committed suicide, having been resurrected and all the incredible events which gave flavor to this plot.
Two options are available to us. Either this letter reestablishes the truth and completely dismantles the story told by McCandless, or it confirms the extraordinary events if we take these writings as a failed means of concealing facts too difficult to understand. Clearly, she protects her past by blaming her husband. But let’s let doubt settle in and opt for an open ending. Maybe it’s true, maybe not, in any case, Poor creatures is at the cinema!
