David R. Walker

The Bride!

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Peter Sarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Maguro, Jeannie Berlin

Running Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

After the success of The Lost Daughter, actor turned director Maggie Gyllenhaal presents her new audacious and avant-garde film The Bride! starring an amazing cast including Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard and her own brother Jake Gyllenhaal.

Writing and directing The Bride! for Maggie Gyllenhaal was a huge risk as she attempts to recreate a famous Gothic Horror novel and set it in Prohibition era Chicago in 1926, exactly 100 years ago.

Unfortunately the risk does not always pay off. Despite some unnecessary directorial embellishments, Gyllenhaal is strong on style and aesthetics but her narrative is weak and structurally confusing, much like the composition of Frankenstein himself.

This is a strange pastiche of gothic mixed with gangster as Oscar winner Christian Bale (The Fighter) expertly plays the lonely Frankenstein as he approaches Dr Euphronious played by five time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, Nyad, The Kids are Alright) to find him a companion, a physical relief from his lonely movie watching of the dancing film star Ronnie Reed played by Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain).

Enter The Bride, fantastically played with a manic relish and craziness by Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter, Hamnet) who is excellent as the mad Ida, a prostitute who is trying to trap a vicious mob boss. Buckley also plays a cynical version of Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein in a series of weird flashback scenes which were totally unnecessary and detracted from the narrative.

As in the opening line of the film, Mary Shelley says “Darling, something has cracked” as she reimagines a companion for the monster Frankenstein.

It is refreshing to see Christian Bale back on the big screen in a solid performance as the socially awkward but aggressive Frankenstein, a complete antithesis to Jacob Elordi’s performance in Guillermo del Toro’s excellent Frankenstein.

Oscar winner Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) is superb as the feminist detective Myrna Malloy who outwits her male counterpart, Jakes Wiles played without effort by the director’s husband Peter Sarsgaard. Myrna and Jake are chasing after Frankenstein and his Bride, Ida or Penelope as they embark on a vicious killing spree from Chicago to New York.

The Bride! is very arthouse and strange. There are some quirky moments followed by some extremely violent scenes which detract from Gyllenhaal’s clear thematic homage to the cinema going experience. The narrative of this film is disorientating much like the doomed duo who are trying to outwit the police.

Thankfully three time Oscar winning costume designer Sandy Powell (The Aviator, The Young Victoria, Shakespeare in Love) does a fabulous job with the 1920’s costumes and the production design by Karen Murphy is perfect, linking the Gothic horror style with the shadowy world of gangsters.

The Bride! will find an audience but it is not a commercial film, but at least director Maggie Gyllenhaal delivered a film which was inventive, feminist and ferocious. Her cinema aesthetic is distinctive and bold.

The Bride! gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is worth seeing if you enjoy bizarre films like Siesta, Orlando and Stoker. Unfortunately having a great cast does not always guarantee an excellent film.

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