Few movies leave you completely dumbfounded, trying to properly assess the miscalculated artistic choices and make sense of what you’ve just witnessed. The Bride! is one of those movies. I found myself asking, “What am I watching?” on more than five occasions. Ostensibly Maggie Gyllenhaal, serving as writer and director, was aiming to retell the Bride of Frankenstein (played by recent Oscar winner Jessie Buckley) as a feminist uprising set amidst a Bonnie and Clyde 1930s backdrop. That sounds like a workable idea, but then did you know that the literal ghost of Mary Shelley serves as our intrusive narrator because even after death she still had a few more things that she wanted to get off her dead chest? Did you know she’s also played by Buckely, so throughout the movie she’ll be talking like a 1930s Chicago dame and then, out of nowhere, she’s talking like a British aristocrat. This is because the literal ghost of Shelley is possessing this woman who looks exactly like her. Also, apparently, the characters Shelley created are… real in the same universe that she is? Did you know there’s a literal song-and-dance number to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” as a strange nod to Young Frankenstein? It’s not some imaginary diversion. It actually happens, I believe, thanks to that ghost of Shelley possessing a whole dance team. Did you know that The Bride inspires an armada of women to follow her supposed self-actualization to smear black crud on their face and rise up, becoming an avenging feminist force that appears to be about firing guns in the air and screaming about their ruined brains? The concept of reanimating The Bride with a healthy dose of feminist rage and re-framing her agency is a fitting vehicle to examine an overlooked perspective for a character better known for her silence and prominent hairdo. However, I don’t think this movie manages to make the character and her plight more universal. There are multiple incidents of sexual violence and predatory men, as well as Buckely screaming “Me too” in repeated emphasis during one scene. This is a big, broad, messy movie stitched together and careening through tone and genre homage. Buckley is unhinged and all over the place, fascinating you at one moment and making you cringe the next, especially when she alternates in and out of Shelley’s possession. There is a lot of style and intriguing ideas and commentary here just trying to find purchase amongst the overwhelming junk. This is an ambitious movie with some bold swings and the risk is that you may miss badly, and The Bride! is all misses.

Nate’s Grade: D