The Bride!
March 4th, 2026
MOVIE: THE BRIDE!
STARRING: JESSE BUCKLEY, CHRISTIAN BALE, PENÉLOPE CRUZ, PETER SKARSGAARD, ANNETTE BENING
DIRECTED BY: MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 126 MINUTES
Just this past year, Guillermo del Toro released his version of Frankenstein, originally written by Mary Shelley, crafting a film that studied both the maker and the monster. It was a relatively direct interpretation of the tale, filtered through del Toro’s vision, with gothic horror serving as the dominant aesthetic. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! is the complete opposite of everything del Toro did. Blending a feminist roar with a “Bonnie and Clyde”-esque lovers-on-the-run story, The Bride! is a bombastic, energetic- albeit flawed- reinvention of Frankenstein’s first lady.
From the very first frame, Gyllenhaal makes it clear that this is a story of multiple voices. We hear Mary Percy Shelley (played by Jessie Buckley—doing double duty here) speaking from beyond the grave, ready to possess the body of Ida (also Buckley). She does so just before a pair of gangsters kill Ida, though her death won’t last long. Soon, a shadowy character known as Frank (Christian Bale) arrives on the doorstep of Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), asking for help in finding himself a mate. Ida is dug up, electrical wires are attached to her body, black goo is administered into her corpse, and we meet our titular Bride- complete with schizophrenic tendencies and no understanding of where she came from.
What follows is the wild relationship between Frank and the woman he calls Penelope. But when a few men become too handsy, the monster inside Frank emerges, brutally killing two of them and sending the pair on the run from detectives Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and Malloy (Penélope Cruz). To the outside world, the Bride becomes a kind of folk hero to women, killing abusive men and delivering justice to those tired of being treated like doormats.
What becomes abundantly clear is that this version, written by Gyllenhaal, is a combination of beautiful chaos and biting off a bit more than it can chew. It has everything: violence, a dance sequence, dark humor, and loud, theatrical performances. Buckley’s work is especially wild- at times carrying on multiple conversations with herself, rapidly switching between Shelley and Ida- while Bale’s Frank is both sad and terrifying, capable of murder while harboring an odd obsession with old Hollywood movie star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal, doing a solid for his sister). Not everything will land for every viewer, but The Bride! remains thoroughly entertaining, constantly shifting pace and style from moment to moment.
At its core, The Bride! is a rebellious feminist exploration- a true voice, or voices, for a character who had zero lines in the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. It’s rich with characters and bursting with grand style. The threads don’t always connect, but much like Emerald Fennell’s take on “Wuthering Heights”, one can’t help but watch in awe at what Maggie Gyllenhaal has done with her source material. Look at what she’s created. She’s alive! She’s alive! She’s moving- and my God, The Bride! is alive.
3 STARS
THE BRIDE! IS PLAYING IN THEATERS FRIDAY, MARCH 6TH, 2026.
Written by: Leo Brady
