THE GIST

Frankenstein, dying of loneliness, brings a corpse back to life to be his bride, only to find, like a lot of marriages, made his life infinitely worse. Just like watching this film.

5.5/10

THE REVIEW

SPOILERY

EXPECTATIONS

First of all, I can never remember whether the title does or doesn’t have an exclamation point.

I knew a few things about The Bride(!) before going in. I knew the usual trailer and synopsis but I had also been listening to reactions and reviews, something I usually try to avoid.

I learnt that the studio had interfered and pushed back, changing it to a final cut that wasn’t her true vision.
I learnt that the spirit of Mary Shelley comes back to possess Jessie Buckley’s character.
I learnt that there are a few things that don’t go anywhere and the film doesn’t know what it wants to be.
I learnt that I would be better to see this on streaming.

But what did I really learn? These are all just different opinions off of YouTube. Take them with a grain of salt. I still went to see it with some interest despite the feedback.

CONTEXT

“The Bride(!)? Is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. It came to be as a feminist, "punk rock" reinterpretation of the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein. Inspired by the original's brief appearance of the character, Gyllenhaal sought to explore themes of female agency, bodily autonomy, and "naughty, wilder" ideas, setting the story in 1930s Chicago.”

THE PLOT

So it starts out with Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, played by Jessie Buckley, sporadically possessing the main character (also played by Jessie Buckley) like someone ticking with tourette’s symdrome. The main character was outgoing and wild and combined with Mary Shelley’s outbursts was frenzied at times.

The main character dies from the repercussions of her outrageous behaviour for the times only to be revived by Frankenstein and a brilliant but mad doctor, to be Frankensteins bride, for he was dying of loneliness.

Upon revival, Frankenstein seems to be most enthralled with his bride to be when Mary Shelly is coming out of her. Which I thought a tad strange as a spirit possess someone who then dies, wouldn’t the possessed spirit have moved on? Oh, well. I’m sure there was a cohesive plot somewhere under all the dullness but I just didn’t care enough to notice.

It was a bit Bonnie and Clyde, more so than a frankenstein movie. It was also a little Dark Knight at times with The Bride reminding me of Heath Ledger’s Joker. One reviewer said that this is what Joker: Folie A Deux was trying to be, but I enjoyed that movie a lot more than this. Just putting the hypothetical thought of Jessie Buckley playing Harley Quinn is an exciting tease though.

THE EXPERIENCE

I felt a bit betrayed to be honest. It was one of those movies to me that seemed like it may not work but I really wanted it too. I wanted it to defy my expectations. It didn’t. It was much of what I suspected.

The makeup and costumes looked like it may be style over substance, and it was. The substance was all in Jessie Buckley’s performance. It was to hard to notice if the story or script were any good because it was so flat that anything else in the cinema was more interesting than what I was watching.

The synopsis and trailers over sold it.

THE MEAT

1. Not sure Mary Shelley being spirited through the character worked. When it was Mary Shelley’s character actually on screen it was like watching theatre acting. It worked on occasion when the fighting for the light with the bride character but it soon wore thin. I also think Jessie Buckley playing both characters was a bit off. Mary Shelley was 53yo when she died, I would rather have had a different age appropriate actress playing her part. It’s way too coincidental for Mary Shelley and a random woman with a fractured soul to look identical.

2. Jessie Buckley’s performance couldn’t save this film but it made it bearable. Without her this would have been an unwatchable film, even with Bale in a play it safe but poorly written solid character. Peter Sarsgard and Penelope Cruz turned up occasionally in a completely uninteresting detectives chasing the main characters side plot. Annette Benning was fine.

3. Just like del Toros Frankenstein, to me the makeup was not great. I’d prefer R rated directed by Fede Alvarez type gory characters but they looked like they were done by a makeup team for a movie. The bride coughed up liquid upon awakening that stained her skin on her face and hands, but that looked stylised. Frankenstein’s scars and bolts looked cheesy. Some of the thirties aesthetics looked like theatre props.

4. The movie did what Sinners did and put modern music in a different time period and it just draws me out of the movie. Both were club scenes but at least the future music was part of the narrative in Sinners. The only movie that recently pulled off putting modern music in an earlier time era was Marty Supreme.

5.The dancing scenes were weird, sometimes awkward and cringey. Some of the editing would make it a nightmare for people with epilepsy. And some of the dances resembled the Haka, which is not a bad thing, just out of place is all.

6. There were themes of feminism throughout always walking the line between thoughtfully getting the point across or being too pushy/preachy about your cause, ultimately losing your audience.

I’m not sure what this film was trying to do. Trying to recall the plot of the story remains elusive. Tonally it was all over the place. What was it about? Frankly I just don’t care enough to recall.

SUMMARY

I like Maggie Gyllenhaal’s previous acting and directing efforts but I can’t bring myself to like this. She was great in The Dark Knight. I loved her in Stranger Than Fiction. I vaguely remember watching her directorial debut The Lost Daughter and liking that.

If the rumours are true that the studio got involved after test screenings and changed Gyllenhaal’s vision of the film, did they turn a disaster of a movie into a semi watchable film or a great movie into a semi watchable film. I guess time will tell.

I should have listened to the early reactions and reviews on this one. It is flat and all over the place, only some good performances make it watchable. Leave this one for streaming, there is no reason to see this on the big screen it adds nothing to the experience.

There is a lot of talent in and behind this movie but that doesn’t always translate to movie magic.

The exclamation point should have been a question mark.

The Bride?

5.5/10