The Bride! Review

 

Maggie Gyllenhaal is now directing her second feature film. Did she do a good job or is it a flop?

The Bride! is a gothic romantic film that draws inspiration from the 1935 movie Bride of Frankenstein, which was also based around the Mary Shelley's classic 1819 novel Frankenstein. First Love Films and In the Current Company produced while Warner Bros. Pictures was in charge of distribution. Maggie Gyllenhaal both directed and wrote.

The story is, in 1930s Chicago Frankenstein's monster ask Dr. Euphronius to create a companion for him. Together they bring a murdered woman back to life as she's now known as "The Bride". What nobody knows yet is this event will not only spark romance but also things nobody saw coming.

Initial Reaction

Despite not seeing a trailer and only a brief TV spot, I decided to see this movie basically it simply looked like it was gonna be fun. Especially since it looked like a mash-up of Frankenstein meets Bonnie and Clyde.

Cons

NOTE!: I WILL BE GIVEN A LOT OF SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION! SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED JUST SKIP OFF THIS!

Oh boy, do we have problems. The biggest one being the story. Holy hell, Maggie Gyllenhaal seriously needed someone to polish this because damn. Firstly there's a recurring thing where Ida aka The Bride makes a big grand speech and her actions are inspiring people (or in this case just women) who feel like they're not being heard. And when that happened I couldn't help but have a familiar feeling. I mean we have a story set in the past, we have rioters inspired by the title character by the end of the movie. Only I think the character in that movie was more of a comedian. No that's not the word, I think he was more of a clown, a joker if you will. But even if you can ignore that the movie has a very not so subtle message about sexism and the "Patriarchy". Not only is it eye rolling and feels like something we would've gotten back in 2017, but it doesn't make sense. One example of it not making sense comes from the character of Dr. Euphronius. She went by a male's name because nobody was gonna take a female scientist seriously. Expect there were some very respected female scientists. One being Marie Curie who won a Noble Prize in Physics in 1903 and won another for Chemistry in 1911. Then there was Irène Joliot-Curie, she won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, ya know, the same 1930's this movie is set in. I guess Gyllenhaal couldn't be bothered to do a Google search like I did. Then we have some confusing things like Mary Shelley (or in this case her ghost) exist in the same world as her fictional characters? Don't bother asking me cause I don't got a single clue how that works. And when we're not dealing with story issues then we got a problem with the genre mashing. Now mixing genres can work there's plenty of movies that do it and do it well, but not here. Because one moment it's a dark romance movie, then it's a surrealist movie, then it's a period drama, then it's this, then it's that. The genres in this are more stitched together than Frankenstein himself.

Middle Ground

Sadly the mix bag is the performances. Sure they're all trying but your heart kinda aches for them. Christian Bale is doing decent but a lot of time his lines sounds like he's screaming them. Then we have Jessie Buckley who is good but more in an over the top sense. Then there was the cinematography. Some of it actually looked pretty good, but then there was instances where it made you feel like you were on drugs.

Pros

I've got nothing.

So yeah, this was the first real letdown of 2026. Hopefully the next movies I review will be much better.

My final rating is, Bad.

That's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Mar 12th, for my A Look Back at review of season three of Invincible. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.