‘The Bride!’ Falls Apart at the Seams

God Forbid ‘The Bride!’ Get a Little Motion

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ riff is easily the strangest big-studio release of 2026 so far

‘The Bride!’ falls apart at the seams

The narrative of Maggie Gyllenhaal's sophomore feature feels as dismembered and sewn back together as one of Frankenstein’s monstrous creations.

'The Bride!' Review: Hard to hate this monster

Try as I might, I can’t bring myself to really hate Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, which you probably wouldn’t have been able to guess should you have sat next to me during the screening. I was polite, of course, save for one audible “goddamn it” when, in a moment of passionate verve, Christian Bale’s Monster reveals that he’s gotten “Penelope,” the name he’s given to Jessie Buckley’s amnesiac bride, tattooed across his chest*. Yet The Bride! i…

Movie Review: Here comes “THE BRIDE!”, audacious and wild - Rue Morgue

Movie Review: Here comes “THE BRIDE!”, audacious and wild By MICHAEL GINGOLDStarring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale and Annette BeningWritten and directed by Maggie GyllenhaalWarner Bros. THE BRIDE! is big, brash, bold and a bit of a mess. Is it too obvious to say that this Frankenstein movie isn’t quite as great as the sum of its parts? Writer/director Mag…

The Bride! Review: A Beautiful Abomination

Never mind spare body parts. In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, our eponymous newlywed is composed of three entirely separate and competing personalities. There is Ida, a seeming gangster’s mol hanging out in 1930s Chi during the post-Prohibition boom when we meet her; no less than the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who possesses Ida from time to time like a regal Pazuzu that speaks the Queen’s English with perfect diction; and then, fina…

The Bride! Review: Maggie Gyllenhaal's Beautiful, Messy Monster Movie Is An Unhinged Delight

Jessie Buckley goes big in The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal's messy, audacious punk rock monster mash that overcomes its flaws with boldness. Here's our review.