Similar to what I spoke about in my review of Wuthering Heights, I have no problem adapting a classic story like Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein into a different time period. The actual concept of setting this all in the 30s with mobs, and have it be almost be a Bonnie & Clyde story, I think is very clever and got me excited for the film, alongside a fantastic cast. All reasons which helped this film become one of my most anticipated for films of the year.
Set in the 1930s, The Bride! follows Ida (played by Jessie Buckley), a woman who gets brought back to life when Frankenstein (Christian Bale) asks a scientist to make a companion for him. When they get tangled up with the mob and the police, they go on the run, and do what they can to find their place alongside each other.
As you might have guessed from my score, I didn’t particularly enjoy this film, and I’m not the only one. It’s clear from reviews, that it’s very polarizing and either really works or really doesn’t. The film very much felt like Maggie Gyllenhaal had seen Joker and wanted to do a female led version and changed up the time period. I don’t think it’s narrow minded to see the similarities, as I said in my opening, I liked the concept of this film, and even the film has ideas I liked, it just isn’t executed well.
The film lacked focus which could be laid blame either in the writing or the editing. The film features subplots both for the police and the mob, which have interesting ideas, and would’ve benefited by allowing them to have more screen time. The film heavily focuses on The Bride and Frankenstein, and their relationship which never fully feels strong, it feels like a forced relationship (because it is), and then expects you to believe she cares by the end of the film, and you don’t see enough of it to justify that. The film also has these visions of Mary Shelley that The Bride sees, which always took me out of the film, and honestly left me with my questions that answers. The writing is the area I felt like took some of the blame, with some of the dialogue feeling really clunky as well, and unnatural.
Of course, most of the screen time is with Jessie Buckley as the title character. This film comes out at the perfect time for Buckley, arguably at the peak of her career as it’s extremely likely in exactly a week she will be going home from the Oscars ceremony with a Best Actress award, having swept up every award during the award season. She does deliver another strong performance in this film, alongside a fantastic performance by her counter part played Christian Bale, who is equally as good. There are no bad performances in this film, I just wanted to see more of the supporting cast.
The film looks fantastic on the most part, a great sense of style and nails the era that they aim for really well. Laurence Sher was director of photography for this film, and does a great job, and brings over the similar style he brought from both Joker films for this one as well.
Overall, The Bride! is an interesting concept with some strong performances and great chemistry with the leads, but is ultimately let down by poor writing, and feeling like a more effective story is in there somewhere, I honestly a stronger writer coming in and doing a draft could’ve swung this movie round from a bad score to a truly memorable one for the year. I really wanted to like it going in, and even had it in my honourable mentions for films I was looking forward to this year.
What did you think of The Bride!?
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