Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! begins with a cold open from none other than Mary Shelley herself. In this, Shelley (played by Jessie Buckley) monologues the idea that Frankenstein was only one half of the story. This is the second half – the story of the Monster.
The beginning of The Bride! caught me so off-guard, I knew I would like it. Right after we get to the end of Shelley’s monologue, the movie opens into a warmly lit bar straight out of the 1930s. We meet Ida (also played by Buckley) surrounded by mostly men with hands all over her as it becomes clear what her profession is. Suddenly though, Ida is possessed by Shelley and you can hear as she goes from her strong Chicago accent to something straight out of London. Ida is kicked out of the bar and ultimately meets her untimely death.
Then we meet our monster, Frank (Christain Bale), and they bring Ida back to life via science from a self-proclaimed mad scientist, Dr. Euphonious (Annette Bening). We are taken on a journey with Ida and Frank as they find love with each other, among many other dangerous things.
Months ago, the trailer pulled me in so far I knew I would need to see The Bride! as soon as possible. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the premiere and got to hear Gyllenhaal introduce her movie along with the cast! I had a blast. I was confused yet intrigued by the cold open but once I saw Ida, I was hooked. Unfortunately for Gyllenhaal, not everyone was as fascinated by this concept. The amount of negative reviews I have seen are completely undeserved. The movie debuted with less than 60% on Rotten Tomatoes (notably not good) and there have been articles in publications from The New Yorker to The New York Post (but who even reads The NYP?) and guess who all these negative reviews were written by?
MEN!
This movie is very clearly not targeted for the male audience, and I hate to have to say that, especially because there is nothing anti-men within this movie – simply the fact that Jessie Buckley portrays a woman scorned and in search of herself who happens to murder a lot of men. Who can blame her though? The men are not that great – some may even say evil – but in the world we currently live in (you know, the one that elected a racist pedophile to hold the highest office in the country), men who abuse and hurt women aren’t considered bad by any means because it’s just the norm now.
I’m not saying this movie is perfect. It is messy and a bit scrambled, but there have been critics saying this is the worst movie they have ever seen. What? They didn’t watch Madame Web? (See my previous article for my thoughts on that ½ star of a movie!) All this does is make me think these reviews are incredibly anti-woman. And during Women’s History Month, too? Where do they get the audacity?
The cinematography, the dress that Buckley’s Ida wears for the entirety of the movie, even Frank’s creation scars were all incredibly beautiful and captivating. The makeup on Ida, to then being copied by women who understood and respected Ida’s mission, was one detail in particular that stood out to me. It’s an incredibly basic concept, yet works every time (i.e. President Snow’s granddaughter wearing Katniss’s braid in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire). Unfortunately for me though, the people behind me at the premiere were full-on laughing during this scene. Sure, it’s on-the-nose but the reasoning is obviously not for giggles. They were laughing through many parts of the movie actually, and I had the thought that we were watching completely different movies and having completely different experiences. It was at that moment that I realized the general public might have had more fun than I did, but not in a positive way. And unfortunately I was correct.
This film has been declared by many viewers as the female Joker. I agree. But that makes it so much better. I don’t care about a man going on a rampage for this or that reason. All they do is go on rampages. I want to see a woman do it. More often than not, her reasons are completely valid and even if they’re not, at least I don’t have to see a man on my screen for two hours.