Longing for a companion, the monster of Frankenstein seeks doctor Euphronios to make him a bride. Bringing a murdered young woman back to life begins a series of unforeseen, deep-seated carnage.
In 1818 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, under the pen name of Mary Shelley at the age of 20 published the highly original book ‘Frankenstein’. Rightly traumatised witnessing her own two very young infant deaths, Mary put pen to paper to write a ghost story after a challenge set by colleagues 2 years earlier. A tale that has since become groundbreaking, it was written and set during the time of legalisation of human dissection in surgical theatres alongside the early days of electricity. So the monster of Frankestein was born, or more accurately, made.
The Bride! is a Gothic style romance that is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhall and is based on the very same titled version that followed the original successful Frankenstein film of 1931 which itself was directed by James Whale. Starring Jessie Buckley in the titular role, we now see the lesser on screen character of the original 1935 film become the focus piece of this new flamboyant, visually stunning work set in 1936 Chicago. Opening the whole piece Buckley plays the first of the interchangeable cast of three women. Breaking the fourth wall in glorious black and white detailed close up, Buckley as Mary Shelley talks to us as she seeks to tell the story which followed on from the original ‘Frankenstein’ book but was never a novel itself. Cut to a 1936 Chicago and we see Ida (Buckley) become possessed by Shelley herself as she interchanges her characters through very different voices between an entertainment girl of the night and our godlike overseeing narrator of Shelley. Ensuring the whole club witnesses this alternating vocal spectacle, mob boss Lupino, played by Zlatko Buric, has her thrown out and very quickly killed.
With Maggie Gyllenhaal as director, The Bride! is a family affair which includes her brother Jake Gylenhaall as Ronnie Reed, an on screen icon of the age. A hero for the monster of Frankenstein played by Christian Bale as ‘Frank’, as he takes himself off to darkly lit movie theatres to escape the confines of his visual disfigurements, and the cruel world he has been created into. Alongside her brother we also have her husband Peter Saarsgard as detective Jakes Wiles alongside Penelope Cruz as Myrna Malloy: a female officer who finds a way of being the sharpest tool in the detective box around the apparently lesser thinking male police force. As Maggie’s second directorial role, she was keen to show the pain and hatred women occasionally come across through Penelope – again Buckley – as she finds herself vulnerable to street thugs only for ‘Frank’ with his huge, cumbersome frame and childlike mind to brutally crush them all in graphic fashion.
The Bride! takes us from Buckley’s opening dialogue of Shelley and Ida through to her graphic reanimation to be ‘Franks’ mate Penelope, spewing black vomit in the process. What follows is a visual tour de force between our main duo and the ensuing police force. Being likened to the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, both films ultimately follow the unwanted death and destruction that is left behind as our hero’s try and seek solitude which quickly leads to violence in a world turning upside down around them. Originally in partnership with Netflix, and a growing budget from Gyllenhall, the streaming channel pulled out after filming location issues of the more expensive New York setting over their prefered New Jersey. Saved by Warner Bros. Maggie continued to film using the higher quality ‘Sony Venice 2’ cameras to recreate the once romantic B&W style of the 35mm movie camera of yesteryear. What the film delivers is something visually beautiful though ultimately a little messy. The mob boss Lupino seems shoehorned into the proceedings to illustrate the final twist with our detectives who are introduced quite late into the proceedings as they try to tie up the loose ends that follow.
Our main stars of Buckley and Bale outshine the other actors here who on the whole are all still giving excellent performances. The settings are gorgeous and the pacing is pretty strong. The issues arise with two main points. The aforementioned use of mob boss Lupino, comes across as an afterthought to make the final twist work. The other oddity are the detectives who appear late on and are once again a vehicle for the final twist. The fact that Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein has been released albeit through Netflix streaming possibly has muddied the waters as to which one to see. Christian Bale’s more graphic makeup illustrating the exposed arteries and muscles is truer to Shelley’s text than Toro’s much cleaner: less accurate vision. The Bride! is still a great cinematic experience although the collapse of the story leaves a gaping hole where the ends need to be tied up. This is in no way a bad film, but a vision that tries to be too many things and therefore suffers from incompleteness, much like the unfinished monster in all his 8 feet of cobbled together, childlike glory.
Unfortunately here, The Bride! seems to be the bridesmaid to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
