The Bride performs like a film the place its director and author Maggie Gyllenhaal had about ten totally different concepts to reinvent The Bride of Frankenstein as a contemporary feminist story. Fairly than be discerning and shave off those that didn’t work or she didn’t have time to develop correctly, she determined to place all of them into one film. The result’s a daring movie, chock stuffed with literary and movie references, that could be a whole mess and turns into more and more sloppy the longer it goes on.
One can admire that Gylenhaal is swinging for the fences in her second directorial effort. She reveals off all kinds of popular culture data by having a meta opening that includes Mary Shelley, identical to the unique movie. However as maybe an exemplar of the film’s issues, this reference morphs into a wierd plot gadget whereby Shelley’s ghost goes to own our lead character. This, presumably, is meant to steer someplace, but it by no means actually issues in any respect.
The Bride is stuffed with Chekhov’s weapons that aren’t fired, or aren’t successfully fired. The film morphs from being about Frankenstein’s Monster, right here named Frank (Christian Bale), looking for a companion to ease his loneliness, to grow to be a Bonnie and Clyde-like story of two monsters on the run who encourage a motion. It’s a motion confined to 1 scene, however a motion all the identical. Whether or not it’s this social revolution, a meta-element of Shelley turning into a personality in her personal story, or the fixed Fred Astaire references, none of it provides as much as a satisfying entire.
Jessie Buckley supplies a satisfying sufficient efficiency, if veering slightly too broad at occasions. She veers between two personas, taking part in each The Bride in addition to Shelley’s possessing ghost, and he or she does a advantageous sufficient job balancing these. Bale additionally supplies one of many hotter, extra affable turns of his profession. Penelope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard seem as a pair of detectives tailing the monsters, although their characters are one other thread that doesn’t go a lot of wherever. They every convey their very own strengths, however they’re underutilized for the quantity of screentime they’ve.
Likewise, there’s loads of visible type and aplomb. There are a number of dance scenes, together with the place Frank imagines himself on the large display dancing like Astaire, right here a fictional actor named Ronnie Reed (Jake Gylenhaal). These sequences are enjoyable and amusing, if a considerably on-the-nose reference to Younger Frankenstein.
Neither the appearing nor the cinematography can save this model from its sloppy writing. It veers off in so many various instructions that it turns into a irritating train. The movie feels just like the editor very a lot struggled with the second and third acts as effectively, with continuity falling increasingly more by the wayside. Characters are getting shot in Niagara Falls and by some means a “few hours later” on the identical night time seem in Indiana.
The Bride is aiming to be a daring feminist punk rock examination of The Bride of Frankenstein. Previous these imprecise overtones, although, it’s not clear what the true takeaways are to be. This wanted much more refinement and enhancing time to be shored up into one thing higher.
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