"The Bride! is a love story a rewrite of the Frankenstein myth an action film a murder mystery a crime comedy and a rejoinder to Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things. Its vision of Prohibition-era Chicago is Chicago Manhattan and Weimar Berlin. The film is built around a scaffolding of over-the-top homages to other films, causing it to career off one stylistic cliff after another."
"Yet for all this wild, sometimes deliberate tastelessness, The Bride! also wants to be a serious meditation on love, female messiness, and the limits put on women's lives. It aims to be both a camp classic-the end credits music is, of course, 'The Monster Mash'-and a serious feminist work. As a result, it comes across like Joan Crawford pausing partway through Johnny Guitar to give America Ferrera's speech from Barbie."
"Embodying this fascinating patchwork of ideas good and bad is the Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who will soon find herself in the odd position of winning an Oscar for a serious prestige movie while she is also in multiplexes with the most controversial performance of her career thus far."
The Bride! represents a significant misstep from director Maggie Gyllenhaal following her acclaimed work on The Lost Daughter. The film attempts to function simultaneously as a love story, Frankenstein myth rewrite, action film, murder mystery, crime comedy, and response to Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things. Its Prohibition-era Chicago setting blends elements of Manhattan and Weimar Berlin aesthetics. The narrative is constructed around excessive homages to other films, creating jarring stylistic shifts throughout. Despite its deliberate tastelessness and camp elements, the film also aspires to serious examination of love, female complexity, and societal constraints on women. This fundamental contradiction—attempting to be both a camp classic and serious feminist work—creates an incoherent viewing experience that undermines both intentions.
Read at Slate Magazine
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