Mark Ruffalo Plays The Best Movie Villain Of The Year In Poor Things
This article contains spoilers for "Poor Things."
Every year brings a fresh batch of cinematic baddies to vie for the throne of best villain of the bunch. 2023 in particular has ushered in a number of leading contenders, from William Hale (Robert DeNiro) and his murderous conspiracy at the heart of "Killers of the Flower Moon" to Robert Downey, Jr.'s jealously vengeful Lewis Strauss in "Oppenheimer" (and, arguably, Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer himself) to even M3GAN in, well, "M3GAN." But as sinister and horrifying as all of these antagonists undoubtedly were, Yorgos Lanthimos might have just saved the best — or worst — for last with "Poor Things."
The surprise Oscar hopeful (you can check out /Film's glowing review by Mike Shutt here) follows the Frankenstein-esque story of mad scientist and surgeon Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) reanimating the corpse of a woman who died by suicide into that of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone). With the intelligence and emotional understanding of a toddler yet restricted to the suffocating confines of Godwin's estate, Bella's efforts to awaken herself to the wider and much more complicated world around her takes up much of the film's first act. Her inciting action to leave home and travel the globe is largely influenced by the arrival of the wonderfully named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, having the absolute time of his life). We know from the withering assessments of others that he's little more than a "cad" and a "rake," barely containing his lustful intentions for Bella from the start, but how bad could he possibly be if his actions result in Bella's freedom?
As it turns out? The answer is "very." Boosted by Ruffalo's utter commitment to the bit and writer Tony McNamara's razor-sharp wit, Duncan Wedderburn cements himself as the 2023 villain we most love to hate.
Villainy beneath the surface
Scoundrels come in all shapes and sizes, especially when someone like Bella Baxter has been besieged by the ulterior motives of domineering men her entire life. Whether it's her father figure "God" viewing her as little more than an experiment, the adventurous Duncan whisking her away and instantly browbeating her into submission, or even God's seemingly harmless assistant Max McCandles (an underrated Ramy Youssef), who betroths the simple-minded Bella and pitches a fit the moment Bella announces her intentions to leave. And in a movie that steadily builds to the introduction of its most overtly monstrous figure, Bella's spurned and cruel husband Alfie (Christopher Abbott) from her previous life as Victoria Blessington, surely Duncan couldn't possibly stand out as the worst of them all, let alone of the entire year ... right?
Wrong! Don't let Ruffalo's intentionally awful accent, pratfall antics, and devilish mustache distract from the abject villainy of Duncan Wedderburn. Yes, he seems innocent enough when he first meets her, offers her a way out, and pompously declares his guiding light in life: "Do not care about polite society. It's f***ing boring. Destroys one's soul." Though even Bella correctly susses out that she's hardly safe with this seductive rogue, she goes along of her own volition in order to finally experience the outside world for herself — and have a little fun of her own along the way. Duncan is the kind of man who talks of grand sights and introduces her to pleasures (bodily and otherwise) she's never even dreamed of before, yet unblinkingly falls back on the customs of "polite society" when Bella doesn't strictly adhere to upper-class manners at dinner. Everything he does is about exerting his will over her.
Hypocritically, the promise of freedom quickly curdles into the need for control.
'A pretty moron'
It doesn't take very long for Bella to see Duncan's true colors. While she discovers more about both society and herself, yearning for more independence and self-sufficiency, Duncan's desperate peacocking belies nothing more than a deeply insecure, obsessive, and shallow nature. As it becomes increasingly clear that this experienced, alluring, and worldly man isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is — "He is a pretty moron," traveler Harry Astley (Jerrod Carmichael) aptly puts it later on during Bella's journeys — "Poor Things" makes its case for the most dangerous kind of antagonist in the entire story. More than anything else, the toxic male predisposition towards uninformed, incurious, and blinkered worldviews is chiefly responsible for much of humanity's deep-tissue problems. Of all his heinous actions, few pack as much of a visceral punch as Duncan angrily accusing Bella of reading too much, throwing her books away, and demanding she come back to their room for more "furious jumping."
Throughout her excursions, Bella is confronted with various philosophies and trains of thought dictating how to best live one's life: the selfish and hedonistic antics of the childish Duncan, Harry's bleak cynicism, the socialism espoused by empathetic sex worker Toinette (Suzy Bemba), and Madame Swiney's (Kathryn Hunter) horrifying practicality about needing to experience suffering as much as joys in order to become a complete person of substance. What Duncan offers is by far the most harmful, however, keeping Bella trapped in a never-ending cycle of anger, cruelty, and abuse. After all, Alfie Blessington only unleashes his horrors upon her because Duncan seeks him out for one final reproach.
He might not seem like the most outwardly vicious or callous villain, but nobody in "Poor Things" or 2023 movies overall poses as much a pernicious threat as Duncan Wedderburn.