The Bride!
Too many somethings ultimately become nothing even with skill on display.
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I thought highly of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut “The Lost Daughter” and was therefore looking forward to her follow-up effort “The Bride!” (now in theaters), which reteams her with actress du jour Jessie Buckley as our titular character. Unfortunately, Gyllenhaal’s experiencing a bit of a sophomore slump.
It’s 1930s Chicago and Frankenstein’s monster aka Frank (Christian Bale) is drowning in loneliness after over 100 years of life without female companionship. He seeks the assistance of “mad scientist” Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) in making him a wife.
It just so happens working girl Ida (Buckley) recently took a fatal tumble down a flight of stairs after being possessed by late “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley (also Buckley) and publicly talking smack to notorious gangster Lupino (Zlatko Burić). Frank and Euphronius dig up Ida’s corpse and reanimate it.
A love connection isn’t immediately made between Frank and his bride. Her memories as Ida are mostly gone, but return in flashes. Her personality alternates between the Ida of old, Shelley and someone else new and different altogether who Frank names Penelope.
Trouble rears its ugly head when Frank and The Bride go dancing and drinking. Two men make unwanted, aggressive advances toward her and wind up dead by Frank’s hand. His actions incite a mob and draw police interest in the form of Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz). The dangerous duo hop a train to New York making stops along the way to see musical movies starring Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal, in a tiny, inconsequential role feeling as though he’s doing his sister a favor), with whom Frank is obsessed.
There’s a lot to admire about “The Bride!,” but at the same time it’s a bit of a mess. It’s well acted (I especially liked Bale’s performance as the tough and tender Frank) and handsomely shot by Lawrence Sher and production and costume designed by Karen Murphy and Sandy Powell, respectively. The army of hair and makeup folks (special shout out to Jason Collins of Autonomous FX, Inc.) also do a nice job giving Frank and The Bride unique and interesting looks.
“The Bride!” is very much a feminist screed, which I’m very much here for, but it’s a bit obvious in how hard chicks rule and dudes drool. Gyllenhaal’s script bites off more than it can chew and isn’t entirely clear in its messaging. I think the story would have greatly benefitted from excising the Shelley possession element. I get the impression that Gyllenhaal had fun writing and Buckley had fun performing said material, but I didn’t have fun watching it. If felt as though they were simply gilding the lily without adding anything to the proceedings.
“The Bride!” is “Frankenstein” by way of of an MGM musical by way of “Bonnie and Clyde.” It’s doing so many things and doing a lot of them well, but it’s arguably too many things resulting in a confused and overlong final product. Too many somethings ultimately become nothing even with apparent skill on display.