The Bride

Last night my nephew and I went to see The Bride, one of my most anticipated movies of 2026, with a large crowd at the Broadway.  I appreciate Maggie Gyllenhaal's bold swing for the fences but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would.  The spirit of Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) possesses a gangster's moll named Ida (Jessie Buckley), who lives in Chicago in 1936, because she was denied the opportunity to tell Frankenstein's story the way she wanted to when she was alive.  While Ida is possessed, she identifies the victims of the crime boss Lupino (Zlatko Buric) to a crowded speakeasy so he sends his henchmen Clyde (John Magaro) and James (Matthew Maher) to deal with her and she dies after falling down a flight of stairs.  Frankenstein's monster (Christian Bale), a lonely cinephile who idolizes the actor Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), visits Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening) and he convinces her to create a companion for him using the body of Ida.  She is reanimated but cannot remember who she is so Frank tells her that she is his bride.  Frank eventually kills two people who harass Ida and they are forced to go on the run while Detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz) pursue them.  Ida is also forced to kill multiple times when possessed by Mary's rage and this incites a revolution of women who are tired of being silenced but it also gets the attention of Lupino who sends Clyde after her.  This leads to the inevitable confrontation.  There is a lot going on in the narrative and it is often very messy with wild tonal shifts.  Furthermore, the message is unclear.  I think I get what Gyllenhaal is going for (a woman finally finds her voice and a so-called monster is vilified by men who are the true monsters), but she doesn't quite get there because Ida speaks with Mary's voice, which often horrifies her, rather than her own and Frank's behavior is still very problematic.  Having said that, I loved the cinematography and the visuals, especially the use of Ida's bright orange dress against an almost black and white background because it is so striking.  I also loved the scenes in which Frank inserts himself into Ronnie Reed's movies and the scene in which he and Ida recreate a big production number is seriously cool.  Bale gives an incredibly nuanced performance as the lonely monster but Buckley is absolutely unhinged (in the best possible way) and you cannot take your eyes off her!  This is a mixed bag for me because it is definitely a case of style over substance but I have to admit that I really enjoyed the style!