Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Is a Monstrous Mess

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Is a Monstrous Mess Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! swings for a radical, genre-bending reinvention of Bride of Frankenstein. But the result is a messy, overstuffed film that makes an awkward attempt at feminist relevance. Jessie Buckley achieves such a fine and daring visual effect as the reanimated Bride that for a little while there, I thought writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal might really have locked into something interesting with her second film. Kudos, at any rate, to the actor (Buckley) and the costumer (Sandy Powell) and the makeup artist (Nadia Stacey).

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Is a Monstrous Mess Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! swings for a radical, genre-bending reinvention of Bride of Frankenstein. But the result is a messy, overstuffed film that makes an awkward attempt at feminist relevance. Jessie Buckley achieves such a fine and daring visual effect as the reanimated Bride that for a little while there, I thought writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal might really have locked into something interesting with her second film. Kudos, at any rate, to the actor (Buckley) and the costumer (Sandy Powell) and the makeup artist (Nadia Stacey).