To start with the positives, the costumes are wonderful, the cinematography is gorgeous, the atmosphere is the most Fellini since his own "Satyricon" (1969) or "City of Women" (1980), which Lanthimos is obviously familiar with. Yet those films, lavish as they may be, have aged rather badly as they present an exclusively male gaze at sexuality. So even if Emma Stone delivers the most daring performance of her career, it is a far cry from a believable characterization, let alone a story of emancipation. It is a parody of female liberation set in an absurdly upper class context, shot from an exclusively male perspective. It has a story but no substance. It is series of effects without any tale to string them together.
The Frankenstein premise is what survives of the original novel next to its 1980s Greenaway-ish dialogue, another director who succeeded far more at achieving what Lanthimos attempts here in "A Cook, a Thief, his Wife and Her Lover" (1989). The question of emotional fidelity over sexual instinct is raised in an interesting, albeit borderline pedophile manner (remember, this woman's body contains the brain of a baby). Yet once the protagonist elopes with a brutish lawyer - played in an awfully trite way as to be expected from Mark Ruffalo - the film becomes a series of inconsequential vignettes which do not make the slightest pretense of offering any insights or development. They rather hold together a series of rather dull representations of fornication. The final wrap-up comes off as rushed and unbalanced, and the ignominious goat-brained husband sums up the film quite nicely in its last phrase: "Meh".
If this snorefest has so many admirers, then that's because it's so Instagram-able, because it lends itself to the fabrication of nice little gifs, just like "Saltburn" did (which in my opinion had more gusto). Hollywood is a barren desert of vanity and exhausted moral pretenses, so the slightest whiff of non-conformity comes across as strikingly original to a viewership bereft of any sensual experience. Among the many films which have done what this one has in more entertaining and challenging ways, I would recommend "In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), "Conspiracy of Women" (1988), "Girl on the Bridge" (1999), "Lust Caution" (2007) or "Invisible Life" (2019).
The Frankenstein premise is what survives of the original novel next to its 1980s Greenaway-ish dialogue, another director who succeeded far more at achieving what Lanthimos attempts here in "A Cook, a Thief, his Wife and Her Lover" (1989). The question of emotional fidelity over sexual instinct is raised in an interesting, albeit borderline pedophile manner (remember, this woman's body contains the brain of a baby). Yet once the protagonist elopes with a brutish lawyer - played in an awfully trite way as to be expected from Mark Ruffalo - the film becomes a series of inconsequential vignettes which do not make the slightest pretense of offering any insights or development. They rather hold together a series of rather dull representations of fornication. The final wrap-up comes off as rushed and unbalanced, and the ignominious goat-brained husband sums up the film quite nicely in its last phrase: "Meh".
If this snorefest has so many admirers, then that's because it's so Instagram-able, because it lends itself to the fabrication of nice little gifs, just like "Saltburn" did (which in my opinion had more gusto). Hollywood is a barren desert of vanity and exhausted moral pretenses, so the slightest whiff of non-conformity comes across as strikingly original to a viewership bereft of any sensual experience. Among the many films which have done what this one has in more entertaining and challenging ways, I would recommend "In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), "Conspiracy of Women" (1988), "Girl on the Bridge" (1999), "Lust Caution" (2007) or "Invisible Life" (2019).