One part Bride of Frankenstein, two parts Wild at Heart, add in a splash of Bonnie & Clyde, top it with some healthy heapings of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and add a smidge of Natural Born Killers on the side, and what you get is The Bride!; a bonkers mix of tragic fairy tale with the power of a neo punk rock love story, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, in her sophomore outing as a feature film director, has created an all-consuming, bombastic, and schizophrenic love story that is a visual feast, but left this audience member bloated with style yet starving for more substance.
The Bride! is visually striking and oftentimes jarringly frenetic. Its brilliant cinematography and editing left me spinning out of control, then slammed me back into my seat. It is also highlighted by gorgeous production design by Karen Murphy and incredible costumes by three-time Oscar winner, Sandy Powell.
All the ingredients are there for this to be not only a cult classic but a genuine blockbuster of a movie.
Jessie Buckley continues her perfect track record as one of the most phenomenal actresses of this century. She absolutely shreds this performance of the titular character. I could watch her manically flail between her Ida/Penelope and Mary Shelley personas in this movie all day long. We are doubly blessed that this year, we also get her Oscar-worthy, gorgeous performance as Agnes in Hamnet. She is an awe-inspiring actor.
Bale is perfect as Frank, the tortured, love-sick creature seeking companionship. He is equal parts charming and terrifying. Annette Bening is always amazing. I could watch her read a phone book on screen for days. Enough can’t be said about Peter Sarsgaard as the haplessly compromised detective Wills and his secretary and brains behind the investigation, Myrna Mallow, played by the scene-stealing Penélope Cruz. They were almost in an entirely different movie, part His Girl Friday, part The Fugitive; they pursue the two monsters as they set out on their murderous rampage from Chicago to New York City and back. The actors positively radiated in all their respective roles.
I am so torn writing this review because I equally loved this film and was incredibly annoyed by it. I don’t even know why at this point. I was so looking forward to it. Given how much I adore the Frankenstein story, its films, all its media, and my love of any and bonkers filmmaking, I am absolutely flabbergasted at just how nonplussed I was about this movie when the lights came up in the IMAX theater.
I like what Gyllenhaal has achieved with this film. I love all the homages and the visuals. I loved all the acting.
Something was off, though.
Possibly it’s me. However, do not think that it is lost on me that I am looking through the eyes and mind of a man. If it wasn’t for the opinions of the two women I saw the film with, whose opinions I tremendously respect, hadn’t also shared many of the same sentiments I did when we discussed the film both immediately after the screening and the next day when chatting about the film. Then I would second-guess my feelings about this movie.
Gyllenhaal has turned the tropes of the monster movie genre on its scarred and stapled head. She has somehow “reinvigorated” a new Frankensteined monster of a movie. But it’s one that never gives the audience a very much needed commentary on the horrors of the patriarchy and the power women can wield when they are willing to say “no” to their faces.
Unfortunately, she hits the audience over the head again and again, repeating themes and trying to make catch phrases a thing. In doing so, she unintentionally undermines her message. Becoming another casualty of the “not paying attention” crowd. Instead of a scathing indictment of the systemic sexism rampant in the world, The Bride! devolves into a chaotic, schlocky mess of great but poorly executed ideas that fall victim to its own hubris.
* * * * *
Produced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Tillinger Koskoff,
Talia Kleinhendler, Osnat Handelsman-Keren
Based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Written and Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard,
Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz
