{"id":2954,"date":"2026-03-11T20:44:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:49:20","slug":"on-maggie-gylenhaals-the-bride-bonnie-clyde-with-stitches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/03\/11\/on-maggie-gylenhaals-the-bride-bonnie-clyde-with-stitches\/","title":{"rendered":"On Maggie Gylenhaal’s “The Bride”: Bonnie & Clyde in Stitches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So yesterday I caught the phantasmagorical brilliance of Maggie Gylenhaal\u2019s\u00a0The Bride<\/em>. First I should note I really wasn\u2019t interested in seeing this movie. Why another Frankenstein? Didn\u2019t they just make one with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi last year? And saying it\u2019s based on Mary Shelly\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein<\/em>\u00a0(1818) novel isn\u2019t a big draw for me. I\u2019ve read the book and it\u2019s . . . okay, mainly iconic for being one of the Gothic classics that originated in the famous Year Without a Summer of 1816. It\u2019s certainly a great idea, one of those stories that demands attention. But enough already. The only thing worse than Frankenstein remakes are Dracula remakes. (There\u2019s one out right now, too, which at least stars the always-good Christopher Waltz.) Or maybe Wolfman remakes. Which is all to say, after arriving at the theater with low expectations, I\u2019m impressed to have liked\u00a0The Bride<\/em>\u00a0so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bride<\/em>\u00a0is a quite a complicated contraption of plot and character. Mary Shelly appears on screen and gives her two cents. There are multiple plots and narratorial threads\u2014including Penelope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard as detectives on the case\u2014that seem mystifying in the beginning but somehow all come together nicely by the end. Most obviously, it\u2019s a movie about movies. Set in the 1930s, it\u2019s reanimated in the same era of as James Whale\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein<\/em>\u00a0(1931), which famously starred Boris Karloff as the Monster. But Gylenhaal nods to the many other Frankenstein iterations, most notably Mel Brooks\u2019s\u00a0Young Frankenstein<\/em>\u00a0(1974), one of my all-time favorite comedies: There\u2019s an elaborate dance number to \u201cPuttin\u2019 on the Ritz,\u201d complete with top hats and canes, reminiscent of the Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle stage-show in that film. The spirited gender-bending hijinks of\u00a0The Rocky Horror Picture Show\u00a0<\/em>(1975) lurk more in spirit than in allusion, while the crime-spree chaos of\u00a0Natural Born Killers<\/em>\u00a0(1994) arises from the cultural popularity of Frank and his Bride. Last but not least, there are numerous echoes of the seminal outlaw-lovers of\u00a0Bonnie & Clyde\u00a0<\/em>(1967). The tagline below works for Frank and his Bride: “They’re young . . . they’re in love . . . and they kill people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Critics will no doubt zoom to the feminist message of the film, but that\u2019s a bit reductive. Before I saw it I wondered why Christian Bale would want to play Frankenstein’s Monster (though usually he goes by Frank). He’s great in everything, but my personal favorite is still the classic The Prestige<\/em> (2006). Now I know why: He gets to cut his chops and chew the scenery in several over-the-top scenes, and makes it all look easy. Jessie Buckley plays the eponymous Bride and does a great job. I liked her performance here better than in Hamnet<\/em> (2025). It\u2019s audacious, nutty, and way fun\u2014a crazy-good work of art, not simply a story to get a point across.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only thing worse than Frankenstein remakes are Dracula remakes. But this one rocks.
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