Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sophomore outing, “The Bride!” opens in the shadowy afterlife of “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley, played by recent Oscar-winner Jesse Buckley, who is quite bitter about the way her novel has existed in pop culture since her death.
Filmed in black and white with a close-up on Shelley’s face, she explains to us that there was another story she wanted to tell, but didn’t get the chance to before she died. Now, trapped in a kind of purgatory, Shelley sees a way out of this void by taking possession of a young woman named Ida (also played by Buckley).
Living in Chicago in the 1930s, at the height of Prohibition and mob rule, Ida is first seen drinking at a club with a few gangsters when her mind is invaded by Shelley’s. Disoriented and switching back and forth between Shelley’s commanding British accent and Ida’s nasal-y, punchy cadence, Ida’s outburst eventually leads to her death.
We next meet Frankenstein’s monster, Frank (Christian Bale), sporting prominent facial scarring and stitches that seem to evoke the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in 1931’s “Frankenstein.” In Chicago, the mild-mannered and awkward Frank begs scientist Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him to soothe the loneliness he’s experienced for over a century.
Ida’s body is then dug up and reanimated. Her finger-curled, white, blond hair is frizzy and standing on end. Black bile she spat up has darkened her lips and artfully splattered up her face, like an ink splotch. This, combined with her orange, liquid silk dress, makes her look like an undead Jean Harlow crossed with Elsa Lanchester’s Bride from 1935’s “The Bride of Frankenstein.”
Ida doesn’t quite remember who she used to be, and because Mary Shelley is still worming around in her head, she goes through one heck of an identity crisis while navigating her relationship with Frank and whether or not she really wants the role of His Bride.
There’s a lot of other stuff happening too, like Frank’s obsession with Hollywood film star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ida’s mysterious connection to Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard), the detective investigating Ida and Frank’s crimes.
There’s also this thing where Ida’s criminal actions, framed as a feminist crusade against violence against women, sparks a kind of revolution among women in 1930s America.
All this to say, there are a lot of moving parts, none of which quite come together in the way they should. As such, “The Bride!” is messy and unfocused, haphazardly stitched together like Frankenstein’s Monster itself.
But it’s also far more entertaining, ambitious, and risky than most big-budget movies major studios have been willing to back lately, and I have to say, I appreciated it for that alone.
From beginning to end, I was engaged with the film, despite its many flaws.
The idea of a female creature has been the subject of much debate and critical analysis in the 200-and-some years since Shelley first published “Frankenstein.”
In the original novel, the female creature is hardly more than an idea. Her body is destroyed by Victor Frankenstein before it can be reanimated, out of fear that her union with the Creature would produce “a race of devils.”
On screen, the Creature’s Bride first appeared in 1935’s “The Bride of Frankenstein.” Despite being the title character, The Bride only appears in the final five minutes of the film and dies not long after that.
She does not appear in the third film of the series, “The Son of Frankenstein,” but the Creature does, even though both of them seemingly died at the end of the previous one.
Since her inception, The Bride, as a character, has always struggled to find autonomy, often existing on the periphery of the narrative or being written out of the story altogether. Even in the 1985 film “The Bride” (sans exclamation point), the female creature, played by Jennifer Beals, has to battle for the narrative spotlight with the male Creature, played by Clancy Brown.
Probably the most successful retelling of “Frankenstein” from a female perspective is Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2023 film “Poor Things.”
“The Bride!” certainly explores this struggle for dominance in the narrative on a metatexual level. Ida’s journey is one of self-discovery, and she’s caught between trying to uncover the life she doesn’t remember and making a choice about the life she wants going forward.
Jesse Buckley, who won the Best Actress Oscar for “Hamnet,” is so likable and engaging in the role. She transitions seamlessly from Ida to Shelley and back again. Despite her unhinged appearance, Buckley plays Ida with a surprising vulnerability, making her feel very much like a real person instead of a caricature.
I really liked how she said “I’d prefer not to,” every time someone suggested something she didn’t want to do because same, girl. Same.
However, the script gives little insight into who Ida is or was before Euphronius shocks her back to life. There’s this feeling that she’s always just out of reach. Even the reveal of her identity doesn’t come from her. It comes in the form of a monologue from Wiles, focused solely on the guilt he feels for playing a part in her demise.
The duality of Buckley’s role as both Shelley and Ida, creator and creation, has a long cinematic legacy. Just as The Creature and Frankenstein can be read as foils of one another, The Bride and Frankenstein can be as well.
Only in The Bride’s case, one actress usually assumes both roles.
For instance, in “The Bride of Frankenstein,” which “The Bride!” uses as a jumping off point, Elsa Lanchester plays both The Bride and Mary Shelley.
In a similar opening to “The Bride!” “The Bride of Frankenstein” begins with Shelley telling Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) and Percey Shelley (Douglas Walton), that she has “one more tale to tell.”
In “Lisa Frankenstein,” Kathryn Newton inhabits both the role of mad scientist and female monster. In 1994’s “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” Helena Bonham Carter plays Victor’s love Elizabeth who, after her death, briefly takes on the role of the female creature.
Most recently, Mia Goth took on three roles in Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” playing Victor’s (Oscar Isaac) mother and Elizabeth, the girl he’s in love with. Elizabeth, just before her death, symbolically takes on the role of The Bride because of her love for The Creature (Jacob Elordi).
Still, it’s difficult to parse what Gyllenhaal is trying to say with the duality of Shelley/Ida. The story is just too muddled.
And by giving the role of the creator to Shelley herself, the narrative leaves Annette Benning with little to do, although she is fabulous in the little screen time she’s given.
Additionally, Penelope Cruz, who plays Wiles’ detective partner disguised as his secretary because, you know, it’s the 1930s, is severely underutilized, despite probably being the most interesting character in the film.
“The Bride,” while beautifully shot and widely entertaining, has a lot of story lines going on and it sometimes feels like three different movies in one.
All of those movies are really cool, don’t get me wrong, but I wish Gyllenhaal had picked just one, or at least melded them together in that way feels less disjointed.
Still, I can’t bring myself not to recommend “The Bride!” because I had a really good time. And I can only hope that Maggie Gyllenhaal has another chance to take this big of a swing.
