Whenever I leave the cinema and return home, my partner asks me two questions: how was the movie, and what was it about? I can usually answer both succinctly, paving the way for the words I’ll write later. The Bride, however, left me unable to answer both. There are way too many movies competing for attention, crammed together in an incoherent package, to surmise how the movie was. But I also can’t really say what the movie is about because I’m pretty confident The Bride doesn’t know either. It’s a whole lot of reinvigoration but empty on explanation. Leaving it in a strange place of a big old giant swing that makes contact but ends up being a really hard-hitting foul ball.
The Bride
And yet, I didn’t hate it? The Bride is by no means the worst movie of the year. Anyone being that hyperbolic about it doesn’t watch enough movies. Objectively, it is all over the place, as lost for an identity as the titular character herself. But it is also imbued with an electricity coursing through its veins with every weird turn and wild idea. Moving with such propulsive energy, deciphering what it all means or what it’s about becomes a moot point. Very little works, but we live in a world of slop and seat warmers, void of creativity, and merely collecting checks from more and more franchise IP. The Bride may be a trainwreck, but at least it’s actually trying something. Something different, something reimagined, something with a pulse in a dying world.
Don’t misunderstand; I am in no way attempting to justify The Bride‘s shortcomings. There are many, MANY flaws here, and to say it is a fully realized narrative feature would be a stretch. It’s simply something, deeply unserious despite its attempt at social commentary, big and loud and unconcerned with convention. And I can’t think of anything we need more of in cinema than people taking risks.
Writer and director Maggie Gyllenhaal certainly goes for broke in The Bride, starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Jake Gyllenhaal, Annette Bening, and Penelope Cruz for, um, reasons? At its most basic, the film begins with Ida, who is inexplicably possessed by the ghost of Mary Shelly. Yes, really. After she is killed by a mob boss, Frankenstein (the monster who adopted his creator’s name) approaches Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Bening) to make him a bride because he is very lonely. She reluctantly agrees. Upon Ida’s resurrection – unable to recall who she was and is still occasionally taken over by Shelly (also played by Buckley). She goes on an odyssey adventure of violence and cinema in search of her own identity.
Bones of Babylon in the Worst of Ways
There is much more that happens in The Bride, so much so that even that description is the Cliff Notes. It’s a Bonnie and Clyde love story, a neo-noir crime thriller, a possession ghost story, a creature feature, and a musical? Comps to Joker: Folie à Deux are prevalent and not entirely misguided. However, I’d argue that this actually has more in common with Babylon. If you ride hard for that travesty, you have no right to hate The Bride. Their bones are virtually identical, even down to the same unhinged core performance from an incredible woman.
At least Gyllenhaal isn’t pandering like a petulant child, bemoaning an industry with disdain like they’re an outsider but are really one of the most welcomed filmmakers working today. And for all the times we visit the cinema – which is A LOT for a Frankenstein movie – we never see Avatar clips playing in the 1930s.
It’s really Buckley who makes any of this work. The Bride rests squarely on her shoulders, and she goes for it with everything she has. Even if you find yourself out on the film overall, it’s nearly impossible to be out on Buckley’s manic, demented performance. There’s some visual flair here, with Gyllenhaal experimenting with all kinds of different lenses, ratios, and visual styles. Again, The Bride is a monstrous creation of many other movies, and it’s quite interesting that a movie about lost identity is structured without one. I can’t decide if that was on purpose or just a sheer accidental coincidence. However, it came to be, it serves as the very flimsy glue attempting to hold it all together.
But What Does it All Mean, Basil?
Beneath its style and colliding ideas, The Bride is really trying to break out and give identity to a woman without a man. It’s a question asked multiple times in the film. It’s ultimately the real thematic foundation that attempts to give The Bride, Ida, and Shelly a place of their own. A roaring woman unable to be contained by patriarchy is sure to cause chaos as it disrupts the norms, and maybe that’s what The Bride is getting at. I hope I’m not reading too much into it, because if that IS the case – if that’s what it all means – then I think Gyllenhaal may have actually given us something quite profound and quite brilliant.
Even if I am right about what it all means, I’m unfortunately right about how it all plays out. The Bride is an incoherently constructed mess of a film. A lost creature feature whose ambition far outreaches its own constraints and struggles to put the pieces together. It’s a disaster, but in some really fun and watchable ways. It is still something to behold, something to experience for yourself. Buckley is always worth being seated for, and if for nothing else, it is a good time watching a complete crash out.
Final Verdict
I guess it all just boils down to simply this: The Bride isn’t a good movie by any stretch, but it’s strangely one I enjoyed more than it deserves, and I don’t regret watching it. It’s a vibe, and you should never apologize for what you vibe with.
And hey, it gave me another opportunity to slander Babylon, and that has to count for something.
Rating: 5 out of 10
The Bride is now playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.
