The Bride!

The Bride is a really bold and unusual movie, and I respect the ambition even if it didn’t totally come together for me. There are definitely some great moments throughout, but they’re balanced out by stretches where the film feels a little messy and unfocused, which ultimately leaves it feeling just okay overall. The biggest reason the movie works at all is Jessie Buckley. She’s fantastic and continues to prove why she’s one of the most exciting actresses working right now. Whenever the film starts to drift, she pulls you back in. Unfortunately the story never quite clicks for me. It jumps from scene to scene without much momentum, and the overall narrative never feels like it builds toward something meaningful. Some of the stranger ideas, like the author of Frankenstein essentially inhabiting the Bride’s mind, didn’t land for me at all, and the detective subplot felt unnecessary. Still, I respect Maggie Gyllenhaal for taking some big swings here.