Title: The Bride!
Did You Mean To Put An Exclamation Mark There? I did!
Describe This Movie Using One Quote: It’s They’re alive!
Brief Plot Synopsis: Sometimes society needs a kick in the ass from a reanimated corpse.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3.5 Madeline Kahns out of 5
Tagline: “There’s a monster inside us all.”
Better Tagline: “That’s why you skip the ‘always a bridesmaid’ part.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: The spirit of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, tired of sitting in limbo for nearly 100 years, finds a worthy successor in Ida (Jessie Buckley), a party girl who runs in Chicago mob circles. But her possession is tragically (and momentarily) cut short when Ida is murdered. It’s a good thing Frankenstein’s monster* (Christian Bale) has sought out the famed Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening), an expert on “revivification,” to help him end his loneliness. Euphronious agrees to visit the potter’s field where she and “Frank” dig up Ida, whose reanimated corpse still holds the spirit of Mary Shelley, and some other ideas besides.
“Critical” Analysis: It’s been a pretty decent couple of years for public domain horror. The OG bloodsucker continues to make a splash (Nosferatu, Dracula). And we’ve also gotten updates ranging from pretty damn good (The Invisible Man) and not so much (2017’s The Mummy, last year’s Wolf Man).
Enjoying its own renaissance of late is Frankenstein’s monster. Like Dracula, the modern Prometheus has enjoyed countless adaptations and reboots, from Universal Pictures to Hammer Films to Italian sexytimes. One of the most recent efforts, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, is even nominated for Best Picture this year.
Now, here comes The Bride! It is, in a word, unhinged. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal revives (sorry) the tale of this monster paramour with some not-so-subtle feminist messaging and a cast that’s seemingly game for anything. It’s a frenetic journey, always teetering on the edge of madness, but Gyllenhaal demonstrates a deft hand with only her second feature film.
Tonally — if not thematically — The Bride! is a solid 180 from The Lost Daughter, Gyllenhaal’s feature debut. That film (also starring Jessie Buckley) deals primarily with motherhood and the often unseen toll it takes. The Bride! is as audacious as The Lost Daughter is contemplative, while still showcasing its creator’s voice.
And increasingly, the actor asked to provide that voice is Buckley. As disparate as Gyllenhaal’s first two movies are, you’d have to quadruple that to get the contrast between Buckley here and in Hamnet. She’s the odds-on favorite to win Best Actress for the latter, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if she pulled in a third nom** for this.
Accompanying Buckley as she pulls double duty with the Mary Shelley-possessed Ida is Bale as “Frank.” The Clyde to Ida’s Bonnie, he’s clearly relishing the chance to do some of his weirdest dancing since American Psycho. Yes, there are dance numbers (and a “Puttin’ On the Ritz” shout out), and his hallucinatory visions of starring in the movies of his idol, Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), only add to the incipient madness.
The anachronistic riot grrl-ing Ida inspires provides much of The Bride!’s cathartic moments (my favorite headline: “Twisted Sisters Rage Against the Machine”). It doesn’t always work, suggesting tectonic societal change while still hamstringing “lady detective” Myrna (Penélope Cruz) with the usual doltish co-workers. But the message is pretty clear: in a world of corrupt politicians, vicious gangsters, and feckless cops, maybe the best man is one who’s been torn apart and put together again.
For all that, The Bride! can be uneven. Gyllenhaal’s occasionally on-the-nose messaging (“Me too!”) and anachronisms don’t always gel.
But you can’t say enough about Buckley. She channels Mary Shelley and Ida (and often both) so remarkably that you’re in awe. The Bride! is audacious, horny, and discomfiting enough to warrant your attention. And while I’d love to think it’s going to find an audience, I fear it’s too weird to find one. Guess we’ll see.
*Don’t call him that.
**Also Best Supporting Actress in The Lost Daughter.
The Bride! is in theaters today.