Director – Maggie Gyllenhaal – 2026 – US – Cert. 15 – 126m
**
In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein’s monster seeks love and companionship, so a dead girl, possessed by the spirit of Mary Shelley, is reanimated as his Bride – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 6th
Stuck for eons in a black and white limbo, having died of brain cancer after writing the novel Frankenstein – perhaps the novel was part of a brain tumour – and feeling that she’d not managed to say within it what she needed to say, the departed spirit of Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley from Hamnet, Chloe Zhao, 2025; The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021; Misbehaviour, Phillippa Lowthorpe, 2020) observes the world of the living, in colour, and enters it to take possession of a living woman in 1930s Chicago through whom she intends to say what still needs to be said. She picks the fearless and vivacious Ida (Buckley again) in the orbit of ruthless gangster Lupino (Zlatko Burić from Superman, James Gunn, 2025; Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Östlund, 2022; Pusher, Nicolas Winding Refn, 1996).
Being fed one oyster too many in a nightclub, Ida wilfully throws up over one of Lupino’s men. The man and his companion take her outside to teach her a lesson, but she takes an unintended fall down a stairwell, breaking neck and ankle.
Meanwhile, Frankenstein (Christian Bale from The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, 2008; Empire of the Sun, Steven Spielberg, 1987), the monster using the name of his creator, pays a visit to Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening from Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, Paul McGuigan, 2017; Mars Attacks!, Tim Burton, 1996; The Grifters, Stephen Frears, 1990), telling her he seeks companionship, a bride. They dig up Ida’s interred body and reanimate her.
From here, the narrative attempts to juggle several strands. The monster enjoys visiting the cinema to watch the movies of suave star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal from Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy, 2014; Zodiac, David Fincher, 2007; October Sky, Joe Johnston, 1999), later taking Ida along with him. The star and his successive leading ladies on the screen reflect the couple in the stalls, and vice versa (given that ‘Frank’ and his ‘Bride’ are the stars of the film). Later, monster and girl will meet the star at a stylish party. The monster also turns up in black and white flashback / movie clips in the chorus of Reed’s song and dance routines, echoing comic parody Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974), although there is no attempt at comedy as such here.
On the girl’s trail is plain clothes police inspector Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard from September 5, Tim Fehlbaum, 2024; The Batman, Matt Reeves, 2022; The Lost Daughter) and his protégé Myrna Mallow (an out of place, thick Spanish-accented Penélope Cruz from Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen, 2008; All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999; Open Your Eyes, Alejandro Amenábar, 1997). He feels guilty because one night Ida came to him for help and he took advantage and had sex with her. Also on her trail are the two gangsters who caused her fatal stairs fall, having been informed by Lupino that, somehow, she is very much alive, and that they need to rectify that.
Additionally, the piece adopts the motif of Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967), the lawless gangster couple on the run, casting that mantle on the monster and the girl as they drive out of town. Although here they are not, in fact, gangsters but, rather, two people breaking the rules.
Alas, while writer-director Gyllenhaal keeps all these desperate elements in play, she doesn’t seem to know how to make them relate to one another and form a coherent whole. The result is a film that constantly jumps around from here to there, and struggles to hold the audience’s attention. It fails utterly to deliver as a decent remake of The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935), with the money scene of the Bride’s creation thrown away in the briefest of moments.
The idea of the Frank and Bride on the run Bonnie and Clyde style is such a good one that it’s heartbreaking to watch the film throw that away too.
The core of the film, built around Buckley as the bride and Bale as the monster, didn’t really work for me. I don’t think the problem lies in the script or casting so much as in the conception and, especially, the execution of the movie. You feel as if the ideas explored in the lead actors’ performances would work better in small scale fringe theatre than in a big budget, blockbuster movie.
Certain elements in the overall narrative work much better than others: Skaarsgard holds the attention as a cop, as do Bening as a mad lady scientist, Jake Gyllenhall as a movie star, and John Magaro as a gangster. These, however, are all very much on the fringes of the piece.
The film looks and feels like it came from the same place in Warner Bros. that delivered the far superior, expectation-busting Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips, 2023), a movie with equally disparate elements that juggles them far more effectively.
In short, a frustrating and interminable viewing experience which, despite a stellar cast and some promising elements in the mix, for the most part spectacularly fails to deliver. It ought to be truly great. And yet, somehow, it isn’t.
This review is of the regular theatrical rather than the IMAX version of the film.
The Bride! is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, March 6th.
Trailer: