written by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
produced by: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Talia Kleinhendler & Osnat Handelsman-Keren
directed by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
rated: R (for strong/bloody violent content, sexual content/nudity, and language)
runtime: 126 min.
U.S. release date: March 6, 2026

After adapting Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for her 2021 directorial debut, Gyllenhaal has gone big and bold with an audacious second film, “The Bride!” Warner Bros. has given the writer/director a ton of cash to adapt yet another version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and redefine James Whale’s 1935 “The Bride of Frankenstein”, with a movie set in that era. Initially, from the trailers, this seems like a fun time, a manic steampunk rock iteration of characters that have been around forever. Gyllenhall does indeed go for broke in its wild tone and characterizations, with its obvious stance on feminism front and center, defiantly screaming at viewers, and an anarchic take on love on the run. Sitting through this thing, however, was a surprising endurance test, thanks to a convoluted, disjointed screenplay and a director who lets her actors underplay and overplay throughout the picture.

The first character we meet is Mary Shelley, played by Jessie Buckley, and lensed in soft black-and-white by Lawrence Sher (the cinematographer who also shot both “Joker” movies for Warner Bros.), who engages in a monologue in which she laments that, due to her death, she was never able to tell the story she wanted to tell after Frankenstein. It would quite possibly be a deeper sequel, about a bride created for the mad scientist’s creature. Is Shelley sharing this from the afterlife? And, knowing the movie’s title, how does she plan to tell this story? Will she be serving as a narrator? Honestly, it’s hard to give any of those questions a definitive answer.

Then we meet Ida (also played by Buckley), a gangster’s moll in 1936 Chicago, who is subservient to men who suck up to Lupino (Zlatko Burić), the mob boss who rules the city. One night at a bustling nightclub, Ida becomes suddenly possessed by the spirit of Shelley, and she appears to have a startling breakdown in which she publicly calls out the dark deeds done by many of the men that surround her. Revolting against male control, Ida is forcibly removed by Lupino’s enforcers, Clyde (John Magaro, underutilized) and James (Matthew Maher, in a paper-thin role), and tossed down a flight of stairs, killing her.

That same night, a shrouded figure approaches the home of Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening), after taking an interest in her work on reanimation. He is greeted by the doctor’s maid, Greta (Jeannie Berlin), who hesitantly lets him in, and he introduces himself as Frank (Christian Bale). The mysterious figure shares that he has become lonely after being alive for over 100 years and desires “intercourse”, hoping that Dr. Euphronious can create a female like him to be his companion.

The doctor is awestruck with what she sees before her and can’t help but get involved. In a bizarre turn, Euphronious recognizes Frank as a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, which means that Gyllenhaal has created a world, an alternate Earth, in which all the literary characters, actions, and events from Shelley’s novel actually took place in real life. This makes the presence of Shelley’s spirit and her desire to tell her story bizarre and problematic.

Anyway, the doctor learns Frank has a type: he prefers a Ginger Rogers-esque redhead, the kind he’s seen in the MGM musicals he’s obsessed with (although they’re black-and-white, so not sure how he arrives at a redhead preference), that often feature movie star, Ronnie Reed (a game Jake Gyllenhaal, as a Fred Astaire substitute). Frank must be a persuasive creature, since Euphronious finds herself digging up the grave of a potential mate. It’s unclear how they decide which body to unearth, but you can bet it’s Ida’s body. Once they pull a “Poor Things” on her twisted corpse, Ida awakens as The Bride! and is gaslit by Frank, who tells her they were once engaged.

Confused and infuriated, the resurrected Ida, with internal Shelley voices still competing for control, isn’t having any of it. With her electrified platinum hair and black splotch stain on her right cheek that matches her dark lips, she now resembles an amalgam of Harley Quinn and Cruella (that’s two Emma Stone similarities), and goes along with Frank since she has nowhere else to go. The pair hit the town, taking in a Ronnie Reed movie and then a dance club. Frank becomes smitten by her wild, free spirit, but when he kills a couple of idiots who try to sexually assault her, he tells her to leave him. Knowing they’ll be authorities tracking him, and he doesn’t want her involved in any of that.

Still, having nowhere to go and not knowing anyone else, Bride opts to join Frank, and the two become runaways, stowing away on a train to New York City. They are trailed by Chicago detective Jake Welles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz), who follow them to the Big Apple to stop them before more are added to their body count. Along the way, the anarchic couple’s actions inspire a growing number of fans, especially women who adopt the Bride’s right-cheek ink-splotch look as the reanimated creatures become a sensation.

Right from the start, Gyllenhaal is doing something different by incorporating the spirit of Mary Shelley into this iteration of the classic Bride of Frankenstein story. That inclusion quickly becomes confusing and superfluous to the overall story, adding an incoherent dimension to Buckley’s Ida character. Ida’s death is more of an accident than it is a murder, but when she’s resurrected by Frank and Dr. Euphronious, she’s unconcerned with exacting any kind of revenge on the men who left her for dead. Frank’s motivation is clear from the start: he’s lonely and wants a companion, but the Ida/Bride character’s motivations are all over the place, with no discernible drive except to avoid being held back by patriarchy.

Gyllenhaal doesn’t seem too concerned with balancing the tone of “The Bride!” as the movie vacillates between madness and campiness in a raucous, carefree manner. The director clearly loves what she’s written and thoroughly enjoys seeing Bale and Buckley (especially Buckley) go big with the material, embracing every iota of volatility they can out of their characters. While the two leads are good in their roles, their chemistry doesn’t translate into a convincing love story (or anything compelling). As the older monster, who’s been around for over a century, Bale’s Frank feels more like he’s taking Buckley under his wing, or at least trying to, rather than becoming an object of affection for his Bride. Still, he’s a slightly more engaging character than Ida/Bride, given more dimensions to work with. We see how enamored he is with the silver screen, often imagining himself as a character in the movies he eagerly watches in theaters. There’s a fun, almost touching scene in which Frank actually bumps into Gyllenhaal’s Ronnie Reed character at a glamorous New York City party. He’s almost at a loss for words, which is rare for this chatty creation.

Running parallel with the lead couple is another mismatched pair, played by Sarsgaard and Cruz. Their stilted dialogue and disingenuous behavior feel like they should be in some other kind of noir film. By the time the third act rolls around, Sarsgaard’s Jake (maybe a nod to Jake Gittes?) confesses to Myrna to being a corrupt cop and hands her his badge, as if that’s how a cop retires. Myrna (an obvious nod to Myrna Loy), who’s basically done all of the work for Jake, still has to deal with the constant male dismissal she’s surrounded by – after all, there’s no way a dame can be a detective!

While none of the performances are awful in “The Bride!”, they are choked from reaching greatness by Gyllenhaal’s screenplay, which stays broad and busy, as her directing maintains a loud, abrasive bigness throughout. She has her actors take some embarrassing big swings, like when Bale goes nuts on the dance floor (in one of a handful of musical numbers) to the tune of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and actually shouting the song’s title just like, well, you know. It’s baffling how any of this material got the green light. With clear resemblances to “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Sid and Nancy”, with a dash of “Natural Born Killers”, it’s a challenge to find anything original or unique about “The Bride!”Further proof of this? “The Monster Mash” can be heard during the end credits. My eyes rolled out of my head onto the sticky theater floor.

I’m sure “The Bride!” won’t be the worst movie of the year, and it certainly won’t be the biggest horror flop of the year, but it may be the most movie of the year. Gyllenhaal and company have thrown everything at this. Some are saying that it’s similar to the unfairly maligned “Joker: Folie à Deux”, but “The Bride!” makes that movie look like a masterpiece. That being said, Gyllenhaal’s feature is on track to become an even bigger financial flop than that “Joker” sequel.

RATING: **