Released: 6th March
Seen: 10th August
Mary Shelley was, essentially, the inventor of modern science fiction with her 1818 novel Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus. This single 280-page book about a mad scientist deciding to dig up a bunch of corpses and sew them together to create the perfect man was an absolute revolution and would eventually go on to be the basis for another important work of art, that being the 1931 feature film Frankenstein. That film was, and still is, an absolute benchmark of horror cinema that everyone has referenced at some point and was one of the top earning films of the year when it came out, making 12 million at the box office (adjusted for inflation, that’s about 263 million today). It was big enough that director James Whale was basically begged to make a sequel which brought us The Bride of Frankenstein which is iconic in a very different way from the film that went before it (It’s campier and so much gayer, because why not?). That would inevitably lead to a string of sequels, remakes, reimaginings, recontextualisations and eventually would lead to Maggie Gyllenhaal taking a swing at the idea and giving us The Bride!, a striking modern take on the eternal classic.
The Bride! begins, as all good Frankenstein stories do, with a death. In this case, the death of a young woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley). Ida was just a simple 1930’s girl who happened to be acquainted with knowledge of the local crime boss which, inadvertently, led to her being dead. Fortunately, she won’t be dead for long because it turns out that Frankenstein’s Monster AKA Frank (Christian Bale) is a lonely boy and wants a partner and so he gets the mad scientist Dr Euphronius (Annette Bening) to help him make one and since Ida’s pretty corpse is fairly fresh, she’ll do the job. When Ida arises as The Bride, she’s a little bit messed up in the head (Death will do that to you) and while her and Frank are out trying to enjoy their new lives, things keep happening that cause one or both of them to basically have to kill someone, which leads to the police chasing them across the country as they sort of fall into having a little bit of a crime spree while trying to just live in a world that isn’t ready for either of them.
The Bride! is an unapologetically feminist take on the story, specifically the kind of feminist who has no patience left in waiting for people to notice the problems women face and has decided to just scream that people need to wake the fuck up as loudly as possible and it’s wildly captivating at times. The character of Ida is just full of this confidence, this knowledge that the way she’s being treated is absolutely wrong and no one other than Frank is willing to do anything about it. This kind of thing is throughout the film, not only through Ida but through Mary Shelley herself (also Jessie Buckley, pulling double duty) telling the story from a uniquely female point of view, even with side characters like the Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz) trying to get recognition for her work as a detective that’s constantly being ignored, it’s not subtle about its political intentions, it has the Bride literally yell the phrase “Me Too!” at one point but it’s that pointed decision that gives the film a special energy that runs throughout and helps propel it into being something special.
This version of Frankenstein’s Bride is a powerful creature, she may have been made for Frank but she’s her own woman and will not take any shit and that makes for a compelling character. Her and Frank together are absolutely electric, everywhere they go they bring the energy and the chaos. You can see that The Bride! has taken a lot from Bonnie and Clyde as an influence, letting these characters be raucous and sexy and violent but also in one of the most complex relationships you’ve ever seen. It’s a fascinating way to take this story, an undead Bonnie and Clyde who just keep falling into situations where the only reasonable reaction is a little bit of murder while trying to understand who they are. It makes for a film that never lets go. It makes The Bride something other than just a reward for Frank and allows them both to be interesting, nuanced characters who you can root for. You want them to succeed in a world trying to hold them both down.
That world is also just stunning; The Bride! is set in the 1930s, and they really worked in making it feel like we’ve been transported to that era. Its bold colours and strong contrast make for a movie that’s just fun to look at. You can really tell that the cinematographer was having a field day just making some gorgeous imagery with the perfect costumes and period sets that help make everything feel so real. There’s a palpable energy in every shot that makes this film fun to watch, and a lot of that comes from just the willingness to use bold colours that don’t feel completely washed out.
The rest of the energy, and it’s enough energy to power the entire southern hemisphere, is just from Jesse Buckley who delivers a performance that you will either love or hate and there is no in-between on this one. It’s manic, it’s intense, she leaps between lines like she’s being electrocuted every single time she opens her mouth. There’s a chaotic energy that overtakes her as she bounces through every single scene, randomly spouting off synonyms for whatever she’s just said because her brain isn’t wired properly and it’s one of those performances that’s so completely bonkers that it can either save a film or destroy it. Personally, I found it captivating; every single second of the film is improved just by having her in it and it’s no wonder her character can start a feminist revolution just because of her strength and energy. Buckley got an Oscar last year, but this is the film that truly shows off her limitless range as an actress in all its glorious extremes.
Of course, while The Bride! revels in pushing everything to the absolute limit at times, it must be pointed out that that does lead to the issue of the film feeling overstuffed at times. It’s so much being thrown in that eventually something has to give. By the time we hit the hour-and-a-half mark, you almost expect the film to be done and there’s still 30 minutes left. It’s bloat might be fascinating at times but at the end of the day, it’s still bloated and there’s just so much for the audience to take in that it can just get overstimulating. We’re leaping from reference to reference, throwing in classic Hollywood, the 60s revolution, punk, rock and so much more. By the time the characters are dancing around to Putting on the Ritz, complete with the requisite Peter Boyle impression, it can be a little bit too much of a very good thing.
The Bride! is a fascinating take on the classic movie monster, it modernises her and lets her be an actual character instead of a side-piece for the world’s most famous manufactured man. Its wild energy is captivating but at times a little intimidating and it does certainly drag during the final third of the film. Even with its flaws though, it’s confirmation that Maggie Gyllenhaal has the potential to be a truly great director with the right material and that she can pull out some absolutely brilliant performances from her cast. It’s not going to be for everyone, but the people who click with it are bound to consider it one of their all-time favourites because it just has that special energy that very few other films have.
Movie Meister Reviews 