"The Bride! is such a swing-for-the-fences tonal smorgasbord that it demands to be seen in theaters. Perhaps more than once. The Bride! is a feminist reimagining of the "Bride of Frankenstein" story, in which Mary Shelley's spirit (Jessie Buckley), angry that she had to write Frankenstein about a man given the Victorian era she lived in, possesses the body of a girl in the 1930s."
"There are diegetic musical numbers that imply the monsters have the ability to mind-control a room and make everybody dance their favorite choreography. The Bride becomes a feminist icon for speaking out against a mob boss who kills women and shouts "Me too!" while protesting, not aware that she's gesturing toward modern feminist thought."
"No two characters in the film occupy the same tonal universe. Bale acts as though he is in Young Frankenstein (and, indeed, the aforementioned dance number is to "Putting on the Ritz"); Sarsgaard is naturalistic; Buckley is in an underbaked performance-art piece about messy women in Victorian literature."
The Bride!, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, became Warner Bros.' first major box office failure since The Alto Knights, earning only $7.2 million against a $90 million budget. The film is a feminist reimagining of Bride of Frankenstein featuring Mary Shelley's spirit possessing a 1930s girl's body, leading to conflict with Frankenstein's monster and a female mad scientist. The movie combines wildly disparate tonal elements: diegetic musical numbers suggesting mind-control abilities, anachronistic feminist messaging, noir parody, and performances ranging from naturalistic to experimental art-piece styles. Despite poor reception and financial performance, the film's ambitious, genre-defying approach creates a unique theatrical experience.
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