THE BRIDE!
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penélope Cruz
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
ADRIANO
I love a stylistic swing as much as anyone, but when The Bride! was done, I’m not entirely sure what I was supposed to take away. That’s not to say it’s a total strikeout; writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s reinvention does lead to stunning visuals and some moments that are fantastic. Thematically and narratively, however, it’s a total mess. The amount of tone shifts, genre plays, and confused messaging on female autonomy make this a poorly built monster. In a weird way, I’d still recommend it as a fun time, but it’s not as profound as it’s designed to be.
PAIGE
Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s bold, singular vision of Frankenstein, The Bride!, certainly takes risks. Jessie Buckley is a tour de force in this role and Christian Bale matches her unhinged performance perfectly. On a technical level, this film is dazzling and visually striking. That said, while the film is full of intriguing ideas, Gyllenhaal can’t seem to juggle them all. The construct of the story is where things falter. It throws so much at the wall to see what sticks that ultimately nothing does. Don’t get me wrong, I was entertained throughout, but this script is as unstable and as messy as its characters.
AMARÚ
There’s an invigorating movie within writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s wild Frankenstein interpretation, The Bride!. With Christian Bale’s endearing portrayal of The Creature (Frank), and Jessie Buckley’s engrossing titular bride, Penny, you can see the pieces. But the hodgepodge of tones, genres, and pacing shifts that Gyllenhaal stitched together, while entertaining, left me confused from the very beginning, even more so when the puzzle pieces were later fit together. She clearly wanted to say something about feminism and self-affirming power, but between the scary love story, experimental horror, and tacked-on crime film, it left a bloody, muddled mess of a message.
KATIE
I had so much fun with The Bride!, which reveals writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal as a stylistically ambitious filmmaker who is willing to take a risk. Jesse Buckley is thrilling as the titular Bride, her performance infusing the film with incredible energy, while Christian Bale’s monster complements her perfectly. It’s a car crash in the sense that it's messy, but you can't look away from its delightful insanity. It’s unfocused, but bursting at the seams with ideas, genres, and homages to cinema. Plus, the maximalist set design is fantastic, as are the outrageously entertaining musical numbers and bonkers dance sequences.
ROBERT
The Bride! is like the Pixy Stix of movies: incredible sugar high immediately followed by an intense sugar crash. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal took this swimming into an ocean of ambition where sometimes it floated, but often, it drowned spectacularly. I applaud the risks and the homage to things like Bonnie and Clyde, or more accurately, Natural Born Killers, but beyond the idea of femininity combating the patriarchy, the thematic elements baffled me, and the performances seemed like everyone had their acting button permanently flipped to the “crazy” setting. Hollywood should continue to prop up creators to take big swings like this, but maybe with different bats.
