The Bride of Maggie Gyllenhaal

This movie could have been so good.

Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale are phenomenal as The Bride and Frankie, in a compelling and complicated story of companionship. They - especially Frank - are flawed. They make mistakes. Frank is deceitful and, yes, sexist, but he processes and listens and grows. The film lashes out at sexual assault and violence against women, and provides a fantasy of empowerment with the power to inspire.

The costumes and makeup design are gorgeous, and the pacing is excellent.

But it completely unravels all its narrative power with the superfluous and ridiculous interludes of the ghost of “Mary Shelley.”

To suggest that Mary Shelley - the young woman who essentially invented horror as we know it - didn’t have a strong voice is a shocking insult to the author’s memory. She defied gender conventions of her time and beat the boys at their own publishing game, but … she was trapped in purgatory for not sharing a story? The illness she suffered late in life destroyed her legacy? The premise denies Shelley all the agency and strength she possessed in her life. It ignores all that she accomplished and all that she overcame and all that she created in favor of a fantasy of “more.” Gyllenhaal wanted more of the woman who created science fiction - the woman who examined the power of creation and the relationship between creator and art and what it means to be human. I think her legacy is enough as it is.

The anti-feminist narrative continues when “Mary” possesses Ida. It’s Mary’s outbursts that put Ida in danger, that lead directly to her death, that threaten her undead existence. SHE denies Ida the agency she was exercising in her own time. We later learn that Ida isn’t some poor moll casually involved with organized crime - she is a mole gathering information to take down a powerful mob boss. She’s using a traditionally subjugated position to thwart a system that consumes and destroys women. And “Mary” derails that for … no point.

And “The Bride” is the most powerful name she could adopt? Fuck off. “Bride” is relational, culturally bound, prescriptive. It relies on other people and established institutions to carry meaning. It’s patriarchal. And to take the title instead of a name is objectifying.

But all that aside, it makes no sense. Is Frankenstein a fictional story by Mary Shelley, or is he a real person? Because if Shelley wrote the book and made him up he wouldn’t be stomping around Chicago looking for a mad scientist to help him. Pick one. Make it make sense.

The film is ripe for analysis, but I need more time away from my frustration before I can put aside the films shortcomings in favor of explication.

If there was a cut that removed the few minutes of Mary Melodrama I would watch it on a loop. It would be incredible. Alas, Gyllenhaal didn’t have the editor she needed.