The concept of the film is rather unique, to say the least. It takes Frankenstein’s monster and puts him in a somewhat more modern setting. After over a century of isolation, he decides to try to find himself a companion. Enter Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening), the current era’s foremost expert in “reinvigoration”. Frankie (Christian Bale), as he is called for short, convinces her to make him a bride, someone to spend his long existence with, and the pair dig up the corpse of a comely young lass and bring her back to life. On top of that, the lovely re-animated damsel had mob ties in her previous life?
A scene from 'The Bride!' (Images courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures)
On top of it all, the essence, the rage, the ghost, if you will, of Mary Shelley, the original author of Frankenstein, is lingering in limbo, percolating with ideas and concepts, with no way to voice them. Until, that is, the bride entered the picture.
From the onset, "The Bride!" is frenzied and furious, and rarely does it let up during its two-hour runtime. In fact, it's so chaotic that at the start, it's hard to get a handle on what it wants to be. Is it a horror film? No, not really, even though it has many of the trappings of a horror flick. Is it a crime drama? Not fully, but car chases, shootouts, and sticking it to the man are all in its DNA.
It is not that it is confused as a movie or that Maggie Gyllenhaal loses direction, but there is just so much to take in that you have to give it time to take form. But once it does coalesce and Gyllenhaal molds it into shape, it becomes something one might call grotesquely captivating.
'The Bride!' official poster.
Much like Frankenstein himself, the movie is cobbled together from disparate and seemingly unrelated genres – crime, horror, Hollywood-glamour pic–and results in something darkly beautiful.
At the center of the storm is Jesse Buckely, who plays both the Bride and Mary Shelley. Rageful, passionate, and energized, Buckley delivers a riveting performance, one that is at the same time unsettling and yet impossible to turn away from.
Christian Bale as Frankenstein holds his own and matches Buckley’s skill. Frankie just wants to be left alone. He’s done with society, with trying to be a part of it. He’s done with the angry mob that seems to never go away, whatever century it is, and he’s done with being lonely. In a strange play of contrast, Bale’s monster is the opposite of his bride. She’s young, impulsive, passionate yet naive, while Frankenstein is wiser, more jaded and subdued.
They go on a road trip, a la Bonnie and Clyde or Natural Born Killers, sharing a love that may seem bizarre, and even downright unnatural, but in their eyes no less valid than anyone else's.
"The Bride!" is not your typical summer blockbuster sort of a film, nor is it a pretentious high-concept arthouse flick, but once you get to watch it, it will, somewhat violently, win you over.