- Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Screenplay: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Based on: ‘Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus‘ by Mary Shelley
- Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz, John Magaro, Jeannie Berlin
- Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
- Editing: Dylan Tichenor
- Score: Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Genre: Gothic romance
- Runtime: 126 minutes
Coming out a few months after Guillermo del Toro’s brooding adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride!‘ may share a common literary inspiration but veers in a completely different direction. A superior one. This version still retains the gothicness and grotesqueness yet exhibits them in a way that’s hedonistic and outrageous.
Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale), or ‘Frank’ for short, begs mad scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create a mate for him. His visage is enough to scare the bejesus out of people so having roamed around the world solo for a hundred years, his loneliness is killing him. He seeks companionship. An equal. A union. Matrimony. A bride.
Enter Ida. Or the corpse of Ida, unearthed by Euphronious under the cover of night. Whilst alive, she spoke out against a wicked mob boss who silences women by cutting out their tongues. She’s ‘taken care of’ by the crook’s cronies and dumped in a pauper’s grave. And now being dead, she’s resurrected solely to be Frank’s better half. She has lost her memories of her previous existence and can’t even recall her own name. But that outspokenness remains intact within her. She’s not an object to have and to hold. She isn’t anyone’s bride. She’s just “The Bride”.
That doesn’t stop lecherous men from taking advantage of her. Frank leaps to her defence, with grisly consequences. And thus begins a Bonnie and Clyde-style spree across 1930’s America.
Jessie Buckley’s performance is worth the price of admission alone. She’s really playing three characters in one; Ida, “The Bride” and author Mary Shelley herself, whose essence possesses Ida/”The Bride” at frequent intervals. As if she has Tourette’s but with an English accent and instead of spitting out unfortunately timed slurs, she disgorges her vocabulary. Buckley’s “The Bride” is like an animal free from its cage. Unfettered, unchained, absolutely no holds barred. Her orange dress reminded me of a prison jumpsuit. Ida is certainly a prisoner of the misogyny of the era yet would such an unbridled force of nature wait to be sprung from her cell or would she wrench the steel bars off herself?
In ‘Bride of Frankenstein‘ (1935), the titular creature has minimal dialogue and only appears towards the end of the film. This retelling invigorates the role – she has personality, an actual storyline and plenty of agency. A woman reborn. Gyllenhaal’s screenplay is a clear feminist statement. Frank automatically assumes Dr. Euphronious would be male. Myrna (Penélope Cruz), a woman assisting a detective on the hunt for the pair, is labelled ‘the secretary’ despite having more nous than her colleague. These overlooked women are given the spotlight.
‘The Bride!‘ is not a ghost story nor a horror story. It’s a love story about two outcasts finding each other.
My rating: 8 / 10
SilverScreen 