It’s been a while since a director takes such a huge swing within literally the first few seconds and then does absolutely nothing with it.
- Director – Maggie Gylenhaal
- Runtime – 126 minutes
- Certificate – 15
- Country – United States
I was actually intrigued by the idea of a Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) in purgatory possessing someone to tell the story she never got to. Unfortunately it goes absolutely nowhere. It doesn’t get abandoned because Shelley speaks throughout using Ida’s (Jessie Buckley) body but nothing ever gets made of it.
Besides that, the film as a whole is doing pretty much nothing. I can kind of see what Maggie was trying to do but the execution is just not there. She’s trying to do too much all at the same time and it just ends up being a muddled up mess.
Jessie Buckley is also doing a massive swing and while it didn’t land a lot of time I respect the zanier side of her and the hate she got was just insane.
What is worse is that they hated on her but not on Christian Bale when he is doing exactly the same thing but a bit worse.
I love Christian Bale but I’m sorry he just was not doing it for me here as Frankenstein’s Monster. Maybe it was because of the script (it probably was) or maybe it was because of the direction but to me it felt so forced and unnatural.
While the two leads did not really do not much for me, it was actually Penelope Cruz’s Myrna Malloy and Peter Sarsgaard’s Jake Wiles that I was impressed with – especially Cruz. Really loved what she was doing with this detective role that everyone underestimates just because she’s a woman.
Speaking more on the script, it is the most obvious issue for me. I get it is trying to come from a more feminist perspective than it’s source material which is great in theory but not when the script is like this. To be blunt it just sounded really childish. Edgy just for the sake of being edgy. There isn’t any subtlety to the point it’s trying to make, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it feels like it’s cut from the same cloth as Wuthering Heights and felt like fan fiction.
However, I did actually like the production design and how it was shot. The sets look grand and intricate which is complimented by the cinematography making them translate to the screen. The colours pop and the framing is excellent. I think Maggie’s direction with the acting may not be the best but her directing when it came to how the film should look and feel was pretty on point.
The Bride! is a mess that doesn’t know what it wants to do, never committing to anything with its childish script and erratic acting that doesn’t land half the time. But with good production design, cinematography and how ambitious it was, it leaves you somewhat respecting it.