Review: The Bride!

20 April, 2026 William Eguizabal 0 Comments 2 categories

Title: The Bride!
MPA Rating: R
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Jesse Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins

What It Is: It’s Chicago in the 1930s and Frankenstein’s monster (Bale) has just shown up at the doorstep of one Dr. Euphronius (Bening). He comes looking for a bride, or at the very least someone to love. When they dig up the recently deceased Ida (Buckley) she’s just what the doctor ordered for Frank. She might actually be too much for Frank to handle, and as she looks for clues as to her past there will be a trail of clues, bodies and incidents that may help bumbling detectives Malloy (Penelope Cruz) and Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) in finding the monsters on the run.

What We Think: This is a really hard film to talk about. Maggie Gyllenhaal was so ambitious here. She took so many swings, even if I thought she missed on a lot of them. This script is a mess. Like an incomprehensible disaster. It’s so damn entertaining honestly. Some people near and dear to me (lookin’ at you Chai) have argued that this schlock nature is the whole appeal. That’s valid, but this is my review SUCKA and for me it just felt disjointed. Jesse Buckley is incredible here, bold and having taken such a risk post Oscar nomination and subsequent win. Christian Bale gets to flex his acting muscles in a way I can’t recall him doing before. Gyllenhaal makes this a family affair by inviting her husband (Sarsgaard) and her brother (Jake), both of whom are in weird spots here, especially when you look into everything that happens in the film.

Our Grade: B-, When you factor in Chai’s grade with my grade you end up with the grade you see here. At the end of the day she loved it, and I think it’s a mess. What it isn’t is a catastrophe. It’s a bold stroke in a cinema world full of copy and paste and I’ll never let a film fail for trying something different. That being said, most people are either going to absolutely hate this or be indifferent to it. For me that’s one of the worst things a film can do to you — make you indifferent. Either way you can rent it now if something like this tickles your fancy.