Film Review: THE BRIDE! (2026): Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale Go Wild in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Ambitious Creature Feature Romance
The Bride! Review
The Bride! (2026) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Magaro, Matthew Maher, Jeannie Berlin, Zlatko Buric, Louis Cancelmi, Julianne Hough, Massiel Mordan, Lydia Kelly, Tennessee King, Ethan Dubin and Neil Vincent Smith.
Filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal has crafted The Bride! which is a unique monster movie with serious Bonnie and Clyde vibes. The time period aligns with Bonnie and Clyde as well as the new Gyllenhaal picture is mainly set in the 1930’s. Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale work well together in the two central roles in The Bride! as their bizarre characterizations in the film add fuel to the plot’s dramatic fires. This is, first and foremost, a spin-off of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and we certainly needed something like this after the heavy Guillermo del Toro take on the Shelley material from last year. The Bride! is twisted fun that pulls out all the stops and is as tremendously entertaining as dark movies like this come.
The Bride! starts with Buckley conveying Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, in an inspired sequence that is best left to be discovered than analyzed in a review like this. We meet Buckley’s central character, a woman dining in a nice restaurant with a crew of folks. Buckley’s character puts her red shoes up on the table and seems to be a pretty charismatic woman. Things get more complicated, however, when she starts rambling off nonsense and making a scene in the front of people in the restaurant until she is eventually pulled from the strange situation. She soon falls down some stairs and dies an untimely death.
This film’s plot kicks in with the story of Bale’s “Frank,” a spin-off of the Frankenstein monster, who is in search of a woman to love. Frank enlists Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), a scientist, to help him find the perfect match and the dead Buckley character is brought back to life through a series of events to be Frank’s companion, lover and -you guessed it- bride.
This film’s first big events take place in Chicago, but the action moves to other places like New York and Niagara Falls. Eventually on the run from the authorities are the monsters, Frank and his “bride,” who end up moving and grooving while dancing at an extravagant party where the famous actor, Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie’s real-life brother) is present. The best scene of the film has Buckley and Bale’s characters dancing with a group of people to the music of the song, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” It’s lively and has plenty of pizazz.
After the Bride kills a cop, there are two cops on the trail of our notorious pair, Myrna Malloy (Penélope Cruz) and Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard). Jake seems to know the bride from a previous situation from the past and that makes for some intriguing plot developments throughout the latter part of the picture.
Cruz and Sarsgaard have some finely tuned scenes together. Cruz plays the detective looking to make a name for herself and Sarsgaard has an agenda of his own that plays definitively into the action here. Cruz steals every scene she’s in with her signature charismatic personality and slightly overshadows Sarsgaard even though he’s still solid in his role. There’s nothing Cruz can’t do and she has a smart character on her hand to play this time around.
There is a fascinating scene where a cop pulls over our pair of monstrous lovers on the lam and this police officer tries to sexually exploit the bride, so it’s pretty obvious where the scene is ultimately going. It’s done well, though, and intensifies the bride’s struggle to maintain her integrity in a world that seeks to destroy the bond she has formed with Frank and put a stop to her quest for independence.
Bale is terrific as the stitched-up, stapled-up monster and he has some terrific scenes with Buckley. Buckley is responsible for most of the success of the film due to her quirky nature and tremendous unpredictability. She’s vulnerable and watchable in all of her scenes and it’s hard to know what she’s going to say or do next. Maggie Gyllenhaal has worked well with her phenomenal cast and her brother, Jake, even gets a few moments to shine in what is essentially a glorified, but fun, cameo. Buckley is in a whole different category, though, proving her range as an actress through her role in this film. We know Bale could do this role in his sleep, but if Buckley faltered, the movie would too. Luckily, Buckley keeps the intensity of her role intact, and we take her seriously on her character’s quest for truth, love and freedom.
The Bride! has plenty of surprises in store, not the least of which is Annette Bening’s stellar supporting turn as the mad scientist who seems pretty normal in comparison to everyone else. There is a mob boss who gets to add tension into the mix as well in a parallel story line. Watch for the mid-end credits scene which is as bizarrely entertaining as they come and is proof of Gyllenhaal’s very distinct qualities as a filmmaker. The film’s visual similarities to Bonnie and Clyde are worn on its sleeve and give the film a very specific and enjoyable vibe as we root for the criminals at hand here – the monsters.
If The Bride! feels like it finally comes full circle just as the end credits are about to play, there’s still something brilliant about the structure of the movie which is almost 100% old-school and as truly “Hollywood” as possible. This is the type of movie that combines the best elements of some of the finest films ever made. You’ve got the mob angle, the love story, the science fiction elements, the horror themes and the showy dance numbers all coalescing to make what is bound to be one of the most unique movies you’ll see this year.
When our grotesque-looking, but lovable, pair of misfits attends a packed showing of a monster movie in a theater, it makes for one of The Bride!‘s most humorous and inspired moments. There’s a reason the film ends with the song lyrics, “Monster Mash” playing on the soundtrack. That’s because this movie is a dark “mash” of the best features of monster and non-monster movies and is a winner from the always reliable Maggie Gyllenhaal who once again proves she’s one of our most talented directors. It’s also great to see Cruz working again and having fun on-screen with her well-written role.
Rating: 8/10
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