Released in theaters on March 6, 2026, “The Bride!”, produced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, revamps Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein”, to tell the empowering story of his “bride”. Starring Jessie Buckley as The Bride and Christian Bale as Frankenstein, it’s certainly something strange, yet too beautiful of an art to miss.
When I first saw the preview in the movie theaters a couple months back, I was certain this would be an insane, crazed chaos of a movie. Oh, how I was wrong. Yes, it’s quite crazy, but I have never seen a film more beautifully tragic. With this perspective in mind, here are my honest reviews on different aspects of the film.
ACTING: 10/10
From the opening scene, I was blown away by Buckley’s acting. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like her performance – ever. Her dedication to both roles (Mary Shelley and The Bride) was truly outstanding and gave me chills throughout the whole movie.
Gyllenhaal’s casting was perfect, as Bale and Buckley paired so well together. Bale’s performance is always great, as seen in many of his other films, but there was so much passion and tension with them together; they simply just worked.
In a review by The Guardian on their acting, stating, “There’s another barnstorming performance from Jessie Buckley as the sinister spouse, leaving savage bite marks all over the scenery and on her gallant co-star Christian Bale.”
I believe I left the theater more amazed by the acting rather than the story, which says quite a lot in this case.
PLOT: 9.5/10
It all starts in 1936 when Frankenstein (Christian Bale) goes to Dr. Cornelia Euphronis (Anette Benning) in search of help for the one thing that’ll make his life worth living: love. His proposition: to dig up a young woman from her grave and reassemble her back to life.
This young woman is Ida (Jessie Buckley). Her death is shown in the opening scene, by falling down a staircase after being possessed by Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) at a mafia boss’s dinner. When brought back to life, she remembers nothing from her original life, only knowing she is Frankenstein’s wife.
Throughout the movie, she is so unaware of herself, only being known as his wife and her psychotic personality. In the midst of this, Frankenstein and the wife start a revolt. Now, they’re wanted by authorities for killing many people, being called “monsters”.
Towards the end, Frankenstein’s wife eventually finds herself within her true name, Ida. With this, the manhunt ends when they both get ambushed and eventually die.
I loved this plot. There were so many deeper meanings that were uncovered when I watched. One: the empowerment of women finding their voice. Ida was a prime example of this. When Mary Shelley possessed her in the beginning, she was silent and only doing what she told… until her death. I believe this is the symbolization of her old voice dying and leaving her behind. When brought back, she was loud and filled with rage against the world. Throughout, her old self would slowly climb back, yet would be stronger and more tragically seen, just as Shelley intended with her.
In a review for Rotten Tomatoes, they said that it’s “dark, weird, and uncompromisingly feminist, the film is rage filled, rebellious middle finger to patriarchal depression.”
I agree, I really enjoyed how this whole film was mainly about women empowerment that was just being disguised as a love story. I feel like it was a perfect theme for this film and that Gyllenhaal did a really good job thinking of it, as it needs to be seen more often.
CINEMATOGRAPHY & VISUALS: 10/10
Everything about this movie was beautiful, yet the real thing that made it breathtaking was the visuals and how this movie was presented.
Being shot in New York and New Jersey at midnight, it added to the eery, mysterious aesthetic of the film.
I felt as if I were looking at a tragic piece of art the whole entire time. (Ironically that’s how it is in general). The camera work and contrast of colors on every frame just felt so right. The dark themes with the light, the prints, the angles and everything worked together so incredibly well.
OVERALL: 9/10
I cannot urge you enough to watch this film. It was one of the best artistically driven and intellectual plots I’ve seen. Even better, the acting was the best I’ve probably ever seen. (And I’ve seen so many movies with great acting. This significantly tops that.) Buckley should be getting an Oscar for this movie alone, as I know she won for “Hamnet”.
This movie was just so beautifully tragic to the point where I really can’t say anything more than that. Yet, I will leave you with one more thing that’s basic yet says so much. Trust me, it’s something you truly don’t want to miss out on, especially in theaters. Watch “The Bride!”.
