I Have No Idea What The Bride! Is Trying to Say, But It Sure Is Loud About It

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I really wanted to love Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film, The Bride!, especially since I loved her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, in 2021. This movie takes inspiration from the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein and blends horror, gangster films, musicals, and romance. Jessie Buckley stars as the Bride, and Christian Bale plays her partner, Frank. The Bride! is a wildly ambitious film – it begins with Mary Shelley herself addressing the audience and is set in a strange, timeless 1930s where monsters become folk heroes. The Bride’s reanimation leaves a striking visual mark, and Frank’s love of classic movies leads to both a celebration of cinema and a nod to Mel Brooks. Like the creature in Shelley’s story, The Bride! aims high. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite succeed – and it’s not a beautifully flawed attempt either. It feels like watching someone struggle to share an important message, only to realize they don’t actually have anything to say.

Mary Shelley’s new film opens with a bold, and ultimately baffling, move: the ghost of the author herself appears to tell us the story we’re about to see is the one she really wanted to tell. This ghost then possesses Ida, a character seemingly involved with gangsters, causing her to suddenly speak in a formal British accent during a dinner scene. The film never quite recovers from this strange beginning. Jessie Buckley’s performance, while showcasing her talent, feels jarring. She delivers a very intense performance, reminiscent of her work in Hamnet, but here it doesn’t quite land. Without the emotional grounding she had in that role, Buckley comes across as relying on a single, loud performance style. Had the film been released before the Oscars voting closed, it might have disrupted the strong momentum of Buckley’s Best Actress campaign.

Ida’s possession leads to her death, and the film doesn’t seem to dwell on it. While possessed, she publicly accuses a local gangster at a bar, resulting in a violent end – she’s thrown down the stairs and dies. Luckily, Frankenstein’s monster is still around a century after his creation, searching for a female companion. He seeks help from a reluctant scientist, Dr. Euphronious, to create one for him. They choose Ida’s body, and she’s brought back to life, though with no memory of her past. The new Bride quickly runs off with what she believes is her fiancé. They spend time dancing, watching movies featuring Jake Gyllenhaal’s brother, and facing dangerous encounters, including a brutal attack. Soon, they’re on the run across the country, pursued by gangsters and a pair of detectives, Jake Wiles and Myrna Mallow. Myrna is the more intelligent of the two detectives, but doesn’t receive the recognition she deserves. The Bride highlights issues of sexism, twice presenting women as highly capable professionals, yet portraying them in a somewhat dismissive way.

The movie tries to present itself as a powerful statement about female rage, hinted at by a plot point involving silencing women who’ve been abused. However, the film keeps the victims and their experiences at a distance, and even the abuser feels like a minor character. Despite aiming for a fiery feminist message, The Bride! feels more like a superficial gesture than a truly rebellious one – it’s all style and occasional violence, but lacks real substance, and even feels dated with a late inclusion of the “Me Too” phrase. While the director has mentioned studio interference, the film doesn’t seem heavily edited; instead, it feels like it lacked a clear vision from the start, struggling to convey both big ideas and even what’s happening in each scene. Despite mostly disliking it, I’m glad the film exists, as it helped Warner Bros. have a successful year, even with the current corporate changes. Supporting artistic, director-driven projects means accepting that they won’t always succeed; for every strong film, there will be a misfire. The Bride! is one of those misfires – a messy, but strangely memorable one – and that’s okay.

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2026-03-05 18:54