Christian Bale & Jesse Buckley in The Bride! film review

Bonnie & Clyde. Clarence & Alabama. Mickey & Mallory. The Bride and Frank. There’s something sexy and resonating about an “us against the world”, ride-or-die companionship, especially when it’s insurgent to an unjust status quo. Academy Award-nominated writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal had a calling to explore monstrousness in ourselves and society, through reimagining The Bride of Frankenstein. Gyllenhaal and Jesse Buckley conceived synergy working together on The Lost Daughter, and managed to channel it again for a fireball systematic analysis cloaked as the campy gothic classic.

Going through life as a misunderstood, deformed colossus already has its’ baggage, but to endure this reality alone must really make those bolts in the neck sting. Instead, Frank (Academy Award winner Christian Bale, The Fighter) creates a new reality. This frightful apple didn’t fall far from the tree of Victor Frankenstein, as the monster now does as his creator once did when he reawakened him. He seeks out progressive scientist Dr. Euphronious (Oscar nominee Annette Bening) to make him a counterpart.

Composition pushes the envelope with a classic story

Ida (“The Bride”, Buckley) is an outspoken, disillusioned, and disgruntled woman in conflict with business-as-usual. She says the quiet part out loud, and it gets her killed. When she’s resurrected as The Bride, Dr. Euphronious took the gloves off, resulting in the sort of pragmatic trade- off that comes with a superhero’s origin story. Bare of apprehension, or a filter, The Bride is able take on life with an acute understanding and brash approach, the fitting companion to Frank’s strong, silent (sometimes violent) type. Filling voids in one another, a powerful relationship comes alive. Outlaw lovebirds evolve, hitting their own Badlands, crossing paths with vilified antagonists and two pursuing detectives (Peter Sarsgaard and Penélope Cruz).

In Hamnet, Buckley banged out last year’s strongest performance, and while she’s got dances for any tune, this macabre modern allegory is a less stable stage. Its’ entertainment comes in waves, but when the tide goes out, you feel how hard The Bride! is working to keep itself together. There’s a reappearing impression that the film’s ambitions get the best of it, the fallout being an erratic momentum. Bale knows his character’s place in every part, a welcomed, restrained portrayal that is exactly what the picture requires. There isn’t really an “on-screen” chemistry that magnifies the two leads, but a genuine, instinctive bond between Buckley and Bale that materializes when the cameras roll.

Filmmaking takes every chance it can

Gyllenhaal pulls off what, for what too many filmmakers, just keeps dying on the vine; a surreal depiction of a past time period sprinkled with modern elements. The believable anachronism should earn the set and costume departments a raise. Under the microscope is the primal human desire to be understood and acknowledged. The Bride is steered by her (and others’) potent need for respected social positioning, and Frank is propelled by hope to escape his alienated shadow-existence. It’s romantic. It’s poetic. It’s poignant. It’s daring and fresh. It’s a lot of things, and that quality is the weak link in The Bride!‘s chain.

After showing praise to Mary Shelley’s seminal novel, this picture proudly disregards expectations, spits on all parameters, throws the map in the rubbish and takes you on a path itself hasn’t travelled. But even speedboats have anchors. While entertaining, at times it becomes the horse driving the carriage, energy over capacity, unable to pace itself and find a rhythm of satisfaction. I’m going to tell myself the scene in the tattoo parlor was the auteur’s hat-tip to True Romance’s foundational shot.