The Reel Review
Dr. Frankenstein’s reanimated creation pleads with a scientist in 1930’s Chicago to make him a bride by digging up and reanimating a dead woman. The scientist reluctantly does so, with disastrous results. Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale and Annette Bening star in this romantic fantasy drama from actress turned writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal that is loosely based on 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein.
Among the few dozen movies with exclamation points in the title, The Bride! is more like the disastrous mother! than the iconic classic Hello, Dolly! Initially a messy homage to feminism – there is even a “me too” shout out at one point – Gyllenhaal’s oh-so-artsy The Bride! strangely changes course after a few minutes into a fever dream mashup of Bonnie & Clyde and Joker: Folie a Deux, with violent killings, the super random appearance of Peter Sarsgaard and Penélope Cruz as the respective detective and his way smarter assistant, and a convoluted story about the main character’s prior life as a police informant immersed in a world of mobsters and dirty cops.
Somewhere amidst Buckley’s exhaustingly manic over-acting and Gyllenhaal’s muddled mish-mash of well-intended but woefully incomplete concepts is a story about feminism begging to get out. Her effort is a big, bold swing for the fences, but sadly, despite an impressive, big name cast and well-done period production, this bride is a big, joyless strikeout that is best left at the alter.
REEL FACTS
• Maggie Gyllenhaal’s main cast includes her real-life husband Peter Sarsgaard, brother Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessie Buckley, who earned her first Oscar nomination in Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, 2021’s The Lost Daughter, and Christian Bale, who co-starred with Gyllenhaal in 2008’s The Dark Knight.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for 2009’s Crazy Heart.
• The Bride! was filmed in and around New York City.
Video & Photo
