Visual feast is strange and compelling

Adapted from the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things starts off as a kind of variation on the Frankenstein story.

It begins in Victorian London. Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), a medical student, becomes the assistant to disfigured surgeon Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). But what he's going to learn won't be found in any medical textbook.

Godwin - known, none too subtly, as God - has a ward, the childlike woman Bella (Emma Stone), and Max, who's tasked with recording her progress, begins to fall in love with her. His feelings remain even when he learns of her strange and tragic origin.

After the pregnant Victoria Blessington threw herself off a bridge, her body was recovered by God who used his surgical prowess and knowledge to bring her back to life - after a fashion.

He took the brain of the woman's unborn child and switched it with the one in Victoria's head. Bella, as God named her, thus has the brain of a child in a woman's body.

There's some broad, occasionally uncomfortable comedy here as Bella learns, or relearns, basic functions like walking and talking. Her development is far swifter than usual for a child, presumably because of her unusual 'birth'.

And she's eager to learn, even if some of what she says is strange or inappropriate. But this unpredictability is to be expected from a child.

That Max becomes infatuated with her so quickly is rather disquieting - are her infantile state and dependency part of the attraction?

Soon he has a rival for her affections. Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) is a lawyer who's sleazy and ethically dubious. God has called him in to draw up a marriage contract for Max and Bella but Duncan also becomes infatuated with her.

Since Bella has been eager to see the wider world - God has kept her in seclusion - but her mind and curiosity just keep growing - she happily goes with Duncan on a jaunt around Europe. All God and Max can do is continue their work.

What happens when this unique creature experiences and reacts to the wider world makes for quite a trip. It's frequently unpredictable and, despite the film's length, maintains attention throughout, despite - and often because of - some of the wilder turns.

Stone throws herself into her role wholeheartedly and without archness: Bella's journey is compelling, with her growing awareness and independence making her not so much a victim of men's depredations as an empowered person in her own right.

Among her discoveries is sex, or as she memorably calls it, "furious jumping", and it features quite prominently in the story.

Ruffalo is effectively cast against type as a cad, Yousself manages to make Max likeable despite his sometimes dubious behaviour, and Dafoe as the benevolent but damaged God adds another vivid eccentric to his impressive array of character portrayals.

The film looks amazing, with Robbie Ryan's cinematography beginning in black and white - in keeping with Bella's confined and limited viewpoint - and turning into colour when she goes out to explore the wider world (shades of The Wizard of Oz).

And what Ryan is capturing is also brilliant, with the rich detail of James Price and Shona Heath's production design and Holly Waddington's costumes illuminating the characters and the milieu.

Lanthimos's film might not be for all tastes but it rewards viewers who are seeking something a bit different.

Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture, Poor Things is screening for a limited time at Great Lakes Cinema 3.