The Bride! review
The Bride! is at its best when it gets weird.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Bride!
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Benning, Penelope Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Julianne Hough
The Bride! Review
James Whale’s 1935 masterpiece, Bride of Frankenstein, is one of my all time favorite movies. In fact, it’s my favorite interpretation of Mary Shelley’s creation that has ever existed. There are a lot of reasons for this…but for the purpose of this review of The Bride!, I want to focus on two of them. First, it’s a bit insane. The story pushes itself into some delightfully wacky territory. Second, despite the titular character having just a few minutes of screentime…she became an enduring icon. The Bride is never given life in Shelley’s novel. Dr. Frankenstein is tempted to complete his creation’s request…but ultimately decides against it. It’s Whale’s movie that finally brings her to life.
Now…there are two schools of thought about the Bride in Whale’s movie. On one hand…her demise comes at the hands of Karloff’s Monster. She has no say in her own fate. No agency. Kenneth Branagh’s middling adaptation of the novel sought to rectify this. It brings the Bride to life…and lets her decide to end her own monstrous existence. It’s probably the best thing about that movie. She still receives limited screen time…but she is given more control over her own existence.
On the other hand, the Bride does have a bit more agency in Whale’s movie than that first point suggests. With her creation taking place at the end of the film…most of the story revolves around the Monster’s desire for companionship. She appears to be the reward at the end of the Monster’s journey. But she has the will to deny the Monster that reward. She rejects him. It’s her first and only action in this second life. That choice is the only thing she does in her entire new existence.
What does any of this have to do with The Bride!? As it turns out, a lot. The Bride! is at its best when it gets weird. And…it gets weird. Right from the jump. We begin by meeting a long dead Mary Shelley (played by Jessie Buckley. Pulling double duty as the author and the Bride…just as Elsa Lanchester did in 1935). She tells us about the story she really wanted to write (also similar to the opening of Whale’s film) and introduces us to Ida (Buckley) who will become the titular Bride. Shelley becomes a part of Ida/The Bride. They share a consciousness…the character(s) slip in and out of each persona quickly and at random.
That’s weird. Especially when you consider that Frankenstein apparently actually happened in this universe. The one where Mary Shelley…wrote about Frankenstein. The movie never explains any of this…but we do have a very real Frankenstein’s Monster (Christian Bale) walking around the 1930s. He’s searching for a mate…finds a mad scientist…and digs up a freshly buried Ida. Unlike the Whale or Branagh iterations of the character…we’re going to spend a lot of time with this Bride. And there’s plenty of weirdness to come. Does The Bride! have a scene reminiscent of Young Frankenstein where the monsters dance to Puttin’ on the Ritz complete with Bale bellowing the title of the song? Of course it does. The movie is weird. It’s also pretty awesome when it gives into those weird impulses.
The problems come from when it stops being weird. When The Bride! tries to answer its lead character’s sole question…it’s kind of a drag. “Who am I” is the question, of course. And the problem isn’t that The Bride! asks it. It’s that it doesn’t seem to have an answer. There were times where it felt like the movie was heading towards something…it just never quite gets there. Does this Bride have that agency that you’d expect from making her the lead of her story? Not really. If the message is that being alive is complicated…that’s fine I guess. But it’s incredibly sloppy here. I’m not sure what I am supposed to take away from it. I’m not sure that the lead character ever takes control of her own (second) life. And I’m not sure what the point of any of this was.
What I am sure of, however, is that Jessie Buckley is terrific. Her split personality is wildly entertaining when the story gets out of its way. She gives an award worthy performance despite the story often doing her no favors. Bale gives us a weathered and emotional Frankenstein. In a nice reversal, he exists to love The Bride in the way Bride of Frankenstein meant for the Bride to exist to love the Monster. These are top tier actors doing fine work in a weird movie. It just would have been better if it stuck to being weird.
Scare Value
There’s plenty to like about The Bride!. Buckley is worth a watch on her own. When the story gives into its weirdest impulses…which it does a lot in the first half…it’s quite entertaining. When it slows down to try and find something to say about all this…it ultimately stumbles. It’s a lot more of a Frankenstein story than you might expect. It just doesn’t have the juice to challenge the best versions out there. And it can’t hold a candle to James Whale’s introduction to the Bride character. Even if it has a strong amount of reverence for it.
3/5
The Bride! Link
Buy tickets on Fandango
