The Bride!

I'm so angry. This movie deserves much more support than it's getting. People are talking about how audiences are walking out in droves, and it feels a little like a targeted assassination of Maggie Gyllenhaal and her tremendous movie.

As many of you know, I'm a massive fan of the original Bride of Frankenstein film. It's one of those cases where the sequel is leaps and bounds better than the original.

The thing I love about Bride of Frankenstein is what it has to say about toxic masculinity, relationships, and the agency of women and consent. That's why is usually bums me out out when I see people romanticising the Frank/Bride relationship, because in the original film, she rejects the creature. She's terrified of him and he has a rejected-man freak out and kills himself and her. Spoiler alert.

So when I heard that this movie was a kind of Bonnie and Clyde with Frankenstein and The Bride, I was a little skeptical. Not because I thought it would be a bad movie, I just wanted it to explore those themes from the original.

And it does, quite effectively. It's a fantastic meditation on love, obsession, devotion. and, like the original, female agency in a world that expects women to be permanently enamoured with the men who want to manipulate and control them. Frank (Frankenstein's Monster, played incredibly by Christian Bale), is both devoted and manipulative. He's the ultimate "lonely nice guy" looking for a mate who will love him despite his monstrous qualities.

While he's a sympathetic, sensitive, sweet character, he's also controlling, lying, and manipulative. He's exactly the kind of monster that Frankenstein's creation should be. That's what makes Jessie Buckley's Bride that much more interesting: they managed to make her both a victim, and a victimizer. As they go on their crime spree, it becomes clear that she is the one in charge, and Frank is just happy to be with someone so intense and interesting.

And she is. Oh my, Jessie Buckley is a revelation as The Bride. She's fascinating. From the first scene, it's clear we're dealing with one of those performances like Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver or Heath Ledger as The Joker, where future actors are going to talk about how this was the role that showed them what an actor can really do. She's a revelation.

I'm very disappointed that this movie is performing poorly, because it's a massive swing, and I respect Maggie Gyllenhaal so much for making this film. It's sexy, fun, entertaining, thoughtful, and so very weird. There's a Frankenstein/Bride dance sequence that was the most fun I've had in the movies since the I Lied to You scene from Sinners.

If you have a chance to go see this movie in the theater, please do. It's so fresh and unique. I've never seen a movie like it before, and that's saying a lot. The fact that people don't seem to get it is something that I think should work in its favor for discerning audiences.

I really hope this doesn't hobble Maggie's career, because I'm so very impressed.