On Mar. 6, “The Bride!” came to life with a surge of electricity. Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Bride!” in itself is a Frankenstein amalgamation of many genres and themes. At its heart, though, the movie has a powerful feminist message tied to a love story between two literal monsters.
Starting with a chilling monologue by Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley), the author of the original Frankenstein story, she wants a sequel she never got to write. Thus, Shelley starts the movie by possessing a young woman named Ida (also played by Jessie Buckley) who’s gotten caught up with 1930’s Chicago gangsters. Ida is murdered soon after. At the same time, a lonely Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) finds a mad scientist (Annette Bening) to resurrect him a bride. Frank, as he likes to go by, and the mad scientist dig up Ida and bring her back to life. With no memory of her past, Ida is lied to and told she is Frank’s bride. Chaos, romance, more murders, police investigations, a dance number and a social movement ensue.
Since “The Bride!” is a combination of movie stories, it has a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses. One of its best strengths is, what I think, a great representation of the 1930s. The costume design, set design, music and general recreation of the ideas and movements during the time are perfect. Even the 1930s-style movies within “The Bride!” are hilariously accurate. I also think the casting was really strong. It’s not even just the great Bonnie and Clyde-esque chemistry between Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale; all of the performances are pretty good. The cinematography is creative and blends really well with parts of the movie that leave the audience wondering if it was real or an illusion. All of this makes “The Bride!” look like a really well-crafted movie, but it still has a lot of issues.
One of the movie’s biggest flaws is the pacing. Because the movie is a mish-mash of stories, it has way too much to cover. Certain parts get a lot more focus than they should, while others feel like they were barely covered but have huge implications in the film. I also felt like “The Bride!” didn’t know what type of movie it wanted to be. Obviously, it’s a love story; the audience is literally told that right at the start. It does a good job at being a love story and eventually having a very strong feminist message, but anything else, not so much. The two other main stories it tried to be were a Frankenstein/monster movie and a detective cat-and-mouse thriller, which “The Bride!” did an okay or poor job at. But because “The Bride!” had so much going on, I didn’t really know what part to focus on. Once I did get hooked into certain plotlines, they would ironically be quickly dropped, even if they seemed important. Even some of the plotlines that last all the way to the end of the movie don’t really have great payoffs. The disappointing ending of the sideplots and the almost comedic culmination of the main plot led me to overall dislike the ending of “The Bride!” even with some of its good parts.
“The Bride!” is a surprising movie. It didn’t do everything I expected, and at the same time, did more than I expected. “The Bride!” feels like what “Joker: Folie à Deux” should have been: a really well-made movie about the kindling of a relationship between two damaged and incomplete people that is heavily based on a shared illusion. But, even though “The Bride!” looks and sounds really refined, it still has several glaring issues that are hard to overlook. For these reasons, I give “The Bride!” three stars.
“The Bride!:” ★★★☆☆
