‘The Bride!’ movie review

I hate to say this, but the new movie “The Bride!” was a massive letdown. I loved Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film, “The Lost Daughter,” but her latest project was a jumbled mess. Even great actors – including Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley – couldn’t save it.

The synopsis

In “The Bride!” a lonely Frankenstein played by Bale travels to 1930s Chicago to ask a scientist to create a companion for him. The two end up reviving a murdered woman played by Buckley, but what ensues is beyond what either of them imagined. (Watch the trailer below)

The gag

I’ll start off with some positives about the film. I will say that I think the acting was good and the cast did their best with a bad script. I especially liked Annette Bening’s performance as the scientist. I just wish she was in more scenes.

Another highlight of the movie was the makeup and costume design. The Bride had a very distinctive look with the stained skin and wild hair, and Frankenstein’s prosthetics were also well done. I think both could be really good Halloween costumes.

The drag

Now, for the negatives. My biggest critique is that I thought the script was awful. I especially hated how The Bride would randomly be taken over by Mary Shelley and start blurting out rhyming words like it was slam poetry. It really took me out of the movie every time.

The film also includes multiple song and dance numbers, and for as much as I love a musical, they just did not work. They seemed so out of place amongst all the violence and the so-called romance between the two monsters.

In the end, I think the movie was trying to do too much and the different elements didn’t come together well at all, which bums me out because I was looking forward to this movie.

The verdict

I ended up giving “The Bride” 5/10 stars, which I think is actually generous. I don’t recommend seeing the movie, but if you sat through it like I did, let me know what you thought of it in the comments and subscribe to Pop Commentary for more film and TV reviews like this!

(Watch my video review below)

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