If there is one thing that can be said about The Bride!, it is that no one can accuse Maggie Gyllenhaal of not swinging for the fences. Gyllenhaal’s second directorial feature after her acclaimed 2021 drama The Lost Daughter could not be more of a left turn. Where that film was a restrained psychological drama, The Bride! is an ambitious, vulgar and wildly over-the-top remix of Bride of Frankenstein. Unfortunately, it is also a narratively incoherent mess.
Set in 1936 Chicago, the film opens with one of the strangest introductions I have seen in a long time. The story begins with Mary Shelley, played by Jessie Buckley, monologuing from a black-and-white void somewhere between life and death. She introduces the film we are about to watch as something that may be “a ghost story, a horror story or a love story.” She then quite literally inserts herself into the narrative by spiritually possessing a woman named Ida, also played by Buckley, during a drunken night out at a restaurant.
The possession drives Ida to suddenly leap onto a dinner table and launch into an unhinged monologue aimed at mob boss Lupino, played by Zlatko Burić. As she writhes across the table, she alternates between a Chicago accent and Shelley’s British vulgarities in nearly every other sentence. Not long after this chaotic speech, Ida tumbles down a flight of stairs and dies. All of this happens before the title card even drops.
“No one can accuse Maggie Gyllenhaal of not swinging for the fences.”
Cut to a short while later, when we are introduced to Frankenstein’s famous Monster, played by Christian Bale. Now a century old and going by the name Frank, he seeks out the “mad” scientist Dr. Euphronious, portrayed by Annette Bening, in the hope that she can create a companion to finally end his loneliness. Together, they dig up Ida’s body and resurrect her, reborn as the Bride. From there, the movie becomes a mishmash of stories and ideas that feel as cobbled together as the monsters’ various body parts.
At one point, it turns into a love letter to the power of movies as we learn about Frank’s obsession with film star Ronnie Reed, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. In another stretch, the film becomes a Bonnie and Clyde-style lovers-on-the-run romp after Frank kills two drunken patrons who attempt to assault the Bride.
Elsewhere, it tries to become a hardboiled noir through a dreadfully boring subplot involving a crooked detective and his assistant, played by Peter Sarsgaard and Penélope Cruz, who are tracking the pair. That is not even counting the musical numbers, which feel reminiscent of the godawful Joker: Folie à Deux. If only the film had settled on a few of these ideas, or at least woven them together in a way that did not feel so sloppy.
Not even the feminist rage that sits at the centre of this version of the story feels meaningfully developed, aside from a single sequence in which various women are empowered by the Bride’s crime spree. The aforementioned mob boss Lupino, who is said to have repeatedly cut out women’s tongues, is almost completely forgotten for the remainder of the film. There is no moment of truly earned catharsis, no matter how many angry, gun-toting monologues the Bride delivers.
The one thing more incoherent than the story is the writing itself. I do give credit to Jessie Buckley for fully committing to the chaos in her dual performances, but the constantly shifting personalities leave much of her dialogue nearly incomprehensible.
Christian Bale also commits in a somewhat more reserved performance, but he can be difficult to understand as well. Funny enough, his accent is just as inconsistent as Buckley’s, but without any narrative explanation. He simply switches from a European accent to a Brooklyn one without warning.
“For all its ambitions, The Bride! is a big swing and a miss.”
I also never felt the chemistry between the two actors. Ida, who suffers from amnesia after her resurrection, initially dislikes Frank but eventually grows to fall for him. Despite both leads being incredible actors in their own right, at no point did I feel that chemistry between them.
The one aspect in which The Bride! truly shines is its aesthetic. The visual splendour of Lawrence Sher’s cinematography and Karen Murphy’s production design oozes with style that genuinely lights up the screen, especially in IMAX. The makeup effects of the monstrous couple are also impressively designed, from Frank’s stitched-up body to the permanent black stain that adorns the Bride’s lips.
I will always give props to filmmakers for taking massive risks, especially with a blockbuster-sized film like this. It already feels tailor-made to become a future cult hit. But for all its ambitions, The Bride! is a big swing and a miss.
