Film Assessment: ‘The Bride!’ | Moviefone

Opening in theaters on March 6 is ‘The Bride!,’ written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Penélope Cruz, John Magaro, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeannie Berlin, and Annette Bening.

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Preliminary Ideas

‘The Bride!’ is so much. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second directorial effort (which she additionally scripted) is wildly formidable and much greater than her first movie, ‘The Misplaced Daughter,’ combining the genres of horror, movie noir, comedy, and romance into primarily a anarchic punk reinvention of ‘The Bride of Frankenstein.’ However the Bride right here, embodied by a magnetic Jessie Buckley, isn’t any mute walk-on on the finish: dying and reanimation (or “reinvigoration,” because it’s known as within the film) adjustments her right into a drive of primal feminine energy that nobody – actually not her monstrous mate – can management.

Buckley’s personal primal power and that of her co-star Christian Bae go a great distance in ‘The Bride!’ however the movie will not be with out appreciable flaws. It’s nearly an excessive amount of at factors, and its disparate tones, themes, and narrative strands take a very long time to gel collectively, after which solely fitfully. The film takes a giant, huge swing – however doesn’t all the time join.

Story and Route

The movie opens with a ghostly model of ‘Frankenstein’ creator Mary Shelley (Buckley) telling us from past the grave there’s extra to the story of the Bride than we all know (Shelley herself by no means introduced the creature’s mate to life, in contrast to James Whale’s traditional 1935 movie). Subsequent we meet Ida (additionally Buckley), a younger girl in Thirties Chicago who, possessed inexplicably by Shelley’s spirit, is murdered by the gangsters she’s fallen in with.

On the similar time, Frank (Christian Bale), Victor Frankenstein’s creation who’s been alive for greater than a century and brought the title of his ‘father,’ approaches the eccentric, radical scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) about making him a mate. They dig up Ida’s physique and because of her ‘reinvigoration,’ she turns into the Bride, a fierce, impulsive, wildly sensual, and unfettered being with no reminiscence of her previous.

Earlier than they even totally perceive what’s occurring, Frank and the Bride go on a killing spree that begins with two males who grope the Bride at a membership and continues bloodily from there, as they’re pursued throughout the nation by two detectives (Peter Sarsgaard and Penélope Cruz). However the Bride additionally turns into a cult determine to girls in every single place, who undertake her look and her willingness to inform males ‘no’ – or in her phrases, ‘I would like to not.’ Frank, who adores her, is the one man she trusts, though he hides some truths about their previous as nicely.

‘The Bride!’ begins at 100mph and doesn’t let up from there, though there are factors the place it feels lengthy and one’s curiosity begins to fade. A part of it’s the overwhelming nature of the film: ‘The Bride!’ is a full-on assault on the senses, from Ida’s homicide to the creation scene to her first evening out because the Bride in a membership, every of those scenes almost exploding with stroboscopic power. The tone shifts wildly as nicely, from darkish comedy to full-on horror to street film, and people shifts may be so jarring and abrupt that the end result for the viewer is numbness. Matching these are the narrative strands that come and go, from the undercooked gangster subplot to the fuzzily sketched detectives, who don’t actually earn the arcs they get.

On a tactile stage, manufacturing designer Karen Murphy and costume designer Sandy Powell create immersive, detailed units and outfits for the movie, whereas cinematographer Lawrence Sher comes up with a sequence of searing photographs. The movie can also be surprisingly gory, with heads smashed in, tongues ripped out, and bullets ripping via flesh. Frank, a film fanatic obsessive about movie star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), has visions wherein he and the Bride carry out dance numbers out of Reed’s films (there are many different film homages as nicely, a pleasant contact on Maggie Gyllenhaal’s half). All this solely provides to the jumbled, chaotic vibe of the film – the viewer isn’t actually positive whether or not to take all this severely or not, which in the end undermines the movie regardless of its sheer originality.

Solid and Performances

Following scorching on the heels of her devastating work in ‘Hamnet,’ Jessie Buckley pivots right here into an over-the-top efficiency that teeters on the sting of overbearing however retains the viewer enthralled as a result of actor’s sheer presence and energy. She’s matched in that division by Christian Bale, whose heavy prosthetics recall the traditional Boris Karloff look however who’s simply as uncooked as Buckley, making a nuanced monster who’s as empathetic in his personal means as Jacob Elordi’s soak up 2025’s ‘Frankenstein.’ The 2 channel a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ chemistry that usually goes up to now on the market that they’ve just a little bother reeling it again in and making these characters appear actual once more.

Peter Sarsgaard (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s husband) and Penélope Cruz share a pleasant chemistry as nicely, and Cruz is particularly vivacious. However one will get the sensation that they may be higher off in their very own film the place they’ve extra space to discover their characters. The supporting MVP is Annette Bening, who brings compassion to an in any other case campier position and who, just like the others, has her motivations scrambled by the sudden turns in tone and narrative.

Ultimate Ideas

There’s no query that Maggie Gyllenhaal will get an ‘A’ for effort right here. Rebooting the Bride of Frankenstein as a lady freed of her previous, experiencing true liberation for the primary time, and mowing down those that attempt to corral that’s the most radical take we’ve seen on the Frankenstein mythos in a very long time, and that theme, the setting, and the stream-of-consciousness construction of the entire thing make it one of the crucial unique movies you’re prone to see in 2026.

However as with a couple of different movies we’ve already seen this yr, ‘The Bride!’ typically looks like Gyllenhaal and her forged and crew are throwing the whole lot on the wall and holding nothing again, hoping that ultimately it appears to be like extra like artwork and fewer like … a multitude on the wall. Like its monstrous leads, ‘The Bride!’ is made up of many components stitched collectively and sparked into life by pure electrical energy – but it’s that uncontrolled power that additionally makes ‘The Bride!’ an unwieldly, exhausting expertise.

‘The Bride!’ receives a rating of 65 out of 100.

What’s the plot of ‘The Bride!’

A lonely Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) travels to Thirties Chicago to ask pioneering scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The 2 revive a murdered younger girl and The Bride (Jessie Buckley) is born. What ensues is past what both of them imagined: homicide, possession, a radical cultural motion, and outlaw lovers in a wild and flamable romance.

Who’s within the forged of ‘The Bride!’

• Jessie Buckley as Ida/The Bride/Mary Shelley
• Christian Bale as Frank
• Peter Sarsgaard as Det. Jake Wiles
• Penélope Cruz as Myrna Mallow
• Annette Bening as Dr. Euphronious
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Ronnie Reed
• John Magaro as Clyde
• Jeannie Berlin as Greta
• Zlatko Burić as Lupino

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