The Bride!
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Writer: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Based on: Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (somewhat)
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Magaro, Louis Cancelmi, Zlatko Buric, Julianne Hough
Seen on: 6.3.2026

Content Note: sexualized violence, femicide, (critical treatment of) misogyny

Plot:
Frankenstein, Frank, (Christian Bale) comes to Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening), hoping that she will be able to continue his creator’s work and make him a companion, because he is very lonely. Euphronious is hesitant at first, but she can’t resist the challenge. So, they bring Ida (Jessie Buckley) back to life but Ida has her own ideas about how to spend her time.

The Bride! is a lot and tries a lot and does a lot. Not everything works, but I want to applaud Gyllenhaal and Buckley anyway for going all in with this wild ride.

The Bride! got off to a bit of a rocky start for me, with Ida starting off possessed by the ghost of Mary Shelley, a device that blurs the lines between fiction and reality (which I generally like). I felt that it was a little too much, but then again, it was the perfect introduction to this film that gives 120% all the time. Gyllenhaal uses it to have Ida (and The Bride) spew all kinds of word associations that are at times brilliant and at times a little on the nose, but certainly give Buckley one more thing to work wonders with.

And Buckley does work wonders. She is all over the place, but in the best sense. She switches from confusion to party to monologuing and back, and you can’t help but watch her in awe. As does Frank who, in Bale’s interpretation, is the ultimate softie though that doesn’t keep him from being an asshole, too. Bening is just as committed as Jake Gyllenhaal who provide colorful supporting characters that do stick in your mind.

The film has an obvious feminist message. That is definitely something I like, but here, too, the film sometimes gives a little too much. A little too much explanation especially. In a great emotional climax, The Bride shouts “me too” repeatedly which was like, yeah, we get it. So, there were definitly moments where I wanted the film to maybe only give 100%. And I wouldn’t have minded if it had been maybe 15 minutes shorter. There were moments where it really dragged on a bit.

But I much rather have this kind of enthusiastic “let’s get this in there somehow, too” approach to filmmaking than an entirely streamlined studio production. Especially since women are so rarely allowed to go this far out with their movies. So, more of this, please, thank you.

Summarizing: ambitious.