‘The Bride!’ review: Big ideas, no pulse

The Bride! is an ambitious reinvention of Mary Shelley’s myth that ultimately collapses under the weight of its own ideas.

We are in a golden age of Frankenstein adaptations. It makes sense: the classic story that warns us about the dangers of unfettered ambition and the consequences of technological endeavors humans cannot fully comprehend feels like the perfect companion to the anxieties and ethical debates of the era of artificial intelligence. What makes the recent wave of adaptations especially interesting is the way each reinterprets Mary Shelley’s creature from a different angle. It’s ranged from a neon-goth juvenile love story (Zelda Williams’ Lisa Frankenstein), to steampunk surrealism (Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things), to Guillermo del Toro’s faithful, gothic love letter to the original novel. The Bride!, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is the latest entry in this tradition. Yet despite its bold swings to add depth to a century-old character, the film ultimately plays like a scattered experiment that never fully comes to life.

The Bride’s second life.

Gyllenhaal’s script opens with Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) narrating from the afterlife, claiming she never finished the true story that followed Frankenstein. Eager to continue it, she possesses the body of Ida, a woman caught in a mob conspiracy in 1930s Chicago who is murdered after enraging local mobsters. Soon after, she’s resurrected by a local mad scientist (Annette Bening) at the request of Frankenstein’s monster who just strolled into town.

In this version, the creature is a shy, classic-movie-obsessed figure who simply calls himself Frank (Christian Bale) and longs for a companion after a century of loneliness. Revived without her memories, Ida is told she is Frank’s Bride, and the two embark on a chaotic journey across the country that, as casualties increase, forces Ida to confront the truth of who she was and who she wants to be. That journey causes social upheaval as The Bride’s wild ride inspires rebellion against the corrupt.

Style over substance.

All of this is framed around a particularly charming, campy, Americana gothic aesthetic that is reminiscent of Cabaret and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Lawrence Sher’s cinematography is effective at communicating the chaotic nature of Ida and Frank’s adventure, and so is Sandy Powell’s fantastic costume design. However, those elements can only do so much when the substantive core of the film is rather lacking, and that is, fundamentally, The Bride!’s biggest issue.

Gyllenhaal’s film aims to use the arc of a monster story as a vehicle to showcase female rage as a response to centuries of gender oppression. The message is clear, but it’s repeated so adamantly and in so many different instances that it comes at the expense of character depth and overall plot structure.

Audiences don’t really get to know who the characters are or what their internal conflicts might be until late in the third act. This is, ironically, particularly true of Ida, whose identity issues and involvement in taking down the mafia are merely mentioned but, if further developed, would have made for a fascinating character.

The dangers of maximalism.

These issues are further augmented by Gyllenhaal’s approach to directing which, in contrast to her dark and controlled debut The Lost Daughter, now aims to cover everything. This maximalist effort can be effective at times (see Baz Luhrmann’s work), yet if it’s not anchored with solid characterization, it becomes muddled. Frank and Ida lead a musical montage to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (in a captivating nod to Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein). There’s a half-baked detective subplot starring Penélope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard. Ida’s rebelliousness inspires other women around the United States to revolt and copy her signature ink-like scar.

On their own, all of these ideas are interesting and could be compelling, but without strong anchors it becomes difficult for them to coalesce into the unique way in which the film aims to convey its message. The result is that The Bride! is visually interesting but disjointed to the point that the film seems unsure of what it wants to be. It is never a classic monster story, a detective-mob story, or a love story, nor does it find a comfortable place between those traditions. Even in the moments when the film breaks from its kaleidoscopic style into more traditional dramatic beats, it feels disorienting.

This also hurts the performances, which struggle to fully bring their characters to life and lack a coherent center. Jessie Buckley is very dynamic, but the script forces her to break into abrupt moments of possession by Shelley that feel jarring and ultimately lead nowhere. The effect contrasts with Christian Bale’s almost cartoonish portrayal of Frank and leaves little else for the rest of the star-studded cast to do.

The bottom line.

Despite its many frustrations, The Bride! is not lacking in ambition. Gyllenhaal clearly wants to wrestle Mary Shelley’s myth away from its traditional horror roots and reshape it into something stranger, angrier, and more politically charged. There are flashes where that vision briefly comes into focus: in the film’s theatrical aesthetic, in its playful engagement with classic cinema, and in Buckley’s performance. Maybe that vision got lost in the scenes Gyllenhaal mentioned were cut. But like so many Frankenstein experiments before it, the film assembles a number of striking parts without ever quite animating them into a coherent whole. What remains is an intriguing but unwieldy creation, one that gestures toward something bold without ever fully bringing it to life.

The Bride! is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Read more articles by Pedro Luis Graterol here.