Despite having so little screentime, The Bride of Frankenstein is one of the most iconic monster characters ever created. In the original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelly, she is never brought back from the dead as Dr. Frankenstein destroys her corpse before he was reanimated. Which causes the Creature to go on a rampage that would eventually bring the end for Dr. Frankenstein. The first time she is actually seen animated was in the 1935 film, The Bride of Frankenstein by James White. Despite appearing in the final few minutes of the film, her white gown and her electrified hair streaked with white made her a horror icon. Despite her horror status, she has never really had her own feature film, until now with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!
Over a 100 years after the events of Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s creature, Frank (Christian Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the help of Dr. Euphonius (Annette Bening) to help him make a companion after suffering from severe loneliness for over a century. After giving life to a recently deceased murdered woman known as The Bride (Jessie Buckley), the pair spark romance that causes police interest and radical social change.
Even if you are not a fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, you must commend the ambition of this film. Combining Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein with the chaotic romance of Bonnie and Clyde and the style and commentary of the musical Chicago, The Bride! is a massive swing for the fences. Does it all work? No. Sadly, The Bride! Is overstuffed, clunky, and messy. Gyllenhaal is juggling a lot with different genres, visual styles, and thematic themes, but the film buckles under the weight of it all. This is especially true when the film introduces an entire arc about the violence and silencing that the patriarchy inflicts upon women that is as subtle as a slap in the face. Don’t get me wrong, it is an important subject, but it feels very out of place in this film. A sharper, more natural fitting commentary might have been a deeper look at ableism and the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, in particular those with visible disfigurements. The central pair are vilified by the media and harassed by strangers almost immediately, not because of anything they’ve done, but simply because of how they look. That idea feels far more organically tied to the material the film is working with.
But with all of that stated, The Bride! is still an absolute blast to watch. Watching Jessie Buckly, who is simply brilliant in this role, and Christian Bale match each other’s freak in their whirlwind romance is entertaining to say the very least. The Bride is an unpredictable bottle rocket of a character that at one moment she could be screaming nonsense, and the next beautifully articulate 18th century poetry. While Frankenstein loves going to the cinema to watch his favorite actor dance across the silver screen, fantasizing that he too can dance with his Bride in that way. Both Buckley and Bale fully commit to this strange world that Gyllenhaal has created as the pair wander across America falling in love and maybe killing a cop or two. Say what you will about the film’s narrative, but Gyllenhaal undeniably creates a vivid, almost fantastical world here. The cinematography, the editing, the score, all feel distinctly hers. Love it or hate it, she puts a clear directorial stamp on the film.
Overall, The Bride! is the kind of big, weird, wildly ambitious studio swing we honestly need more of. Maggie Gyllenhaal throws a lot at the wall here, and not all of it sticks. The film is messy, overstuffed, and occasionally frustrating. But it’s also bold in a way most modern blockbusters rarely dare to be. Even when it stumbles, you can’t help but admire the sheer audacity of it. And in an era where so many big films play it safe, that alone makes The Bride! worth talking about.
My Rating: B
The Bride! is now in theaters Nationwide.
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