My quick rating – 5.4/10. The Bride! opens with one of the bolder flexes I’ve seen lately. Mary Shelley, herself, popping in to remind us she wrote Frankenstein on a dare, like she invented horror because someone told her she couldn’t. Jessie Buckley, fresh off snatching an Oscar for Hamnet, pulls double duty as both Shelley in an interview and Ida/Penelope, the poor woman Shelley decides to spiritually haunt for the sake of crafting a sequel. Buckley wastes no time announcing, “Yes, I can act circles around this entire room, but allow me to show you anyway.” Shelley even warns us that if the original story frightened us, The Bride! will make us scream “HELP,” which is exactly the energy this movie tries to run with.
Christian Bale plays Frank(enstein), lumbering into 1930s Chicago like a lonely tank with feelings. He explains his desire for a companion isn’t about sex. He just wants someone to talk to. Bale plays Frank with this raw, tender, hulking sadness that occasionally erupts into shockingly brutal outbursts. The man can absolutely fold someone in half when he’s irritated, which, honestly, makes him one of the more efficient protagonists of 2026. And the actor is one of the best roaming around Hollywood right now.
When Frank asks Dr. Euphronius, played with Annette Bening’s signature “I know exactly what I’m doing” vibe, to resurrect a young woman, Ida is reborn almost too easily. No wires sparking, no assistants yelling “It’s alive!” Just a quick zap and boom, The Bride is here. If only renewing a passport were that smooth. Ida wakes up powerful, confused, and ready to disrupt society in ways neither Frank nor Euphronius planned. This leads to romance, police attention, and a spontaneous social movement that feels one hashtag away from trending.
But the tone? Oh boy. The Bride! has both kinds of weird. Delightful weird, and “why is this here?” weird. One minute we’re in a moody 1930s drama, and the next we’re in a dance club blasting music that absolutely did not exist before Elvis was born. There’s even an odd dance sequence that appears, waves hello, and disappears without explanation. I’m all for a goofy detour, but this one looks like it wandered in from another movie and got lost.
It’s evident that Maggie Gyllenhaal had quite a wide range of ideas, and she felt like experimenting with each and every one of them. Loneliness in contemporary society, similarities to MeToo, feminism, tragedy, romance, existential fear – the movie has it all. The only problem with The Bride! is that it can’t cope with such an overloaded storyline.
Despite their brilliant performances that bring the film to near-brilliance, Buckley and Bale can barely save the disjointed plot. With better editing and about three less subplots, The Bride! could have been excellent rather than simply ambitiously good.
Still, if you enjoy beautifully acted tragic love stories with a side of elegant chaos, there’s something here worth resurrecting. Just don’t be surprised if you really like it while your best friend hates it. It is one of those that is either hit or miss.
