Just a few months ago Guillermo del Toro brought us his vision of Mary Shelley's iconic novel Frankenstein. I think it's safe to say his take on the story was a success, as it will go into next weekends Oscars ceremony with 9 nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor. Looming in the background of Frankenstein's success was another, much wilder adaptation soon to come, that of course being Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride!. Gyllenhaal's first directorial outing The Lost Daughter was a very strong debut, so I was eager to see what her vision would be here, and while the end result is no doubt messy, I wound up having a good deal of fun with it.
This very loose retelling of 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein stars Jessie Buckley as the titular bride. Frankenstein's monster (Christian Bale) has lived a long life of loneliness, and seeks out a renowned doctor (Annette Bening) to help create a lover for him. Little do they know, but the deceased woman they bring to life has a history tied up with the Chicago crime world, and is also somewhat possessed by the ghost of Mary Shelley? Any who, the Bride's brashness and vulgarity force the undead pair into a crime riddled runaway plot, all while being chased by the police and hitting every cinema showing the latest Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal) picture.
With The Lost Daughter Maggie Gyllehaal delivered a tight and subtle drama, with this she goes balls to the wall both stylistically and creatively. Whether it be ideas of female autonomy, the othering of those different than us, or even just the love of cinema, she's throwing a ton at the wall and admittedly a lot of it doesn't stick. There are a ton of different plot lines, some of which are barely touched on at all and others that just don't fit the main storyline, leading to some characters like Ronnie Reed or Peter Sarsgaard's detective being kind of forgotten going into the final act. The themes are loud and in your face, but some do fall on deaf ears due to just how much is going on in the film. The whole mafia subplot is one piece that I really don't think needed to be there and makes the film feel a bit bloated at times. Despite those flaws though, I really did find a lot to love.
First and foremost, the performances are a delight. I truly don't know if I like the decision to have Shelley as essentially a second personality for the Bride, but that choice (weird as it is) allows for Buckley to seemingly have a blast on screen. Her performance is loud and bizarre, but you can clearly see her having a blast and beautifully leaning into the campiness of her role. In one scene she'll be yelling in a 30s Chicago dialect only to immediately switch to an early 1800s Scottish accent, and that whiplash makes for a fun ride as a viewer. Similarly, Bale bounces around from sad and lonely to invigorated with purpose in a performance that at times feels uneven but overall worked for me a good deal. Aiding in both of these performances are the hair and makeup work, creating a great new take on Frankenstein's monster and giving a fresh and undeniably iconic look for the Bride. The gore effects are also pretty damn great, I wasn't expecting Gyllenhaal to go some gruesome with this but there's some serious blood and guts.
The way 1930s America is brought to life is another highlight of the film. I loved a lot of the cinematography, with some shots being genuinely brilliant, but they are highly aided by immaculate set and costume design. The visual effects used to take us back a century are pretty much seamless and work in tandem with the set design to create a tangible vision of 30s Chicago and NYC. The score also does a great job in making the film feel like a mix between an old school crime film and a musical, allowing it to feel like a pretty beautiful homage to Old Hollywood at times.
In the overstuffed plot we sadly see Jake Gyllenhaal, Zlakto Buric, John Magaro, and Peter Sarsgaard underutilized, but the ensemble does feature a pair of delightful turns from Penelope Cruz as Sarsgaard's secretary/aspiring detective, and Bening as the mad scientist. The script is really what lets this one down, as the brash and exciting style is numbed at times by the messiness of the narrative and some of the dialogue. This is no doubt going to be a film that people are split on, and frankly I can easily see why one wouldn't enjoy it. That being said, I enjoyed spending two hours in rich IMAX excess with this one, and I couldn't help but have a blast watching Buckley and Bale eat up the scenery together. 3.5/5
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