Assembling a Frankenstein movie out of bits of other movies is on point as far as approach goes, but it does leave you with one problem: how do you get audiences to buy in to a film that constantly threatens to become little more than a list of references to other films?
In the case of The Bride!, writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal solves the problem two ways. The first involves throwing a lot of things at the audience: this is a mash-up of multiple genres featuring a large cast who all have more going on than it seems, plus there's a number of shoot-outs and hostage situations with a couple of dance numbers thrown in. If you're after a wild ride, look no further.
The second is the cast. Jessie Buckley is an actor with pretty much only one gear and that's flat-out, so given the chance to play a 1930s gangster's moll who gets possessed by the spirit of Mary "I wrote Frankenstein and I have another story to tell" Shelly before being killed, dug up, brought back to life and then struggling to figure out where to go from there? We're back to "wild ride" territory.
Alongside her for much of the film is Frankenstein (Christian Bale) - forget all that "technically he's the monster" stuff, he took his father's name. He's turned up in 1930s Chicago on the doorstep of Dr. Euphronius (Annette Benning), to find himself a mate: crushed by loneliness and knowing that the good Doctor is basically a mad scientist, this is his last roll of the dice to find love.
Frank (as everyone calls him) is a cultured, gentle fellow, aside from the occasional crushing of skulls, and Bale's performance is easily the most human thing here. For an unholy monster, he grounds the events in something human and believable: a decent man who loves a woman, and gives her the space to figure out if she loves him in return.
He's also obsessed with Hollywood musicals, especially those featuring Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal). Which is why he spends a lot of time hanging out in cinemas - so much so that when Frank and The Bride go on the run after a lethal altercation at a jazz / sex club, detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his deputy / secretary (who's the brains of the outfit) Myrna Mallow (Penelope Cruz) figure they can track them down by hitting the cinemas showing Reed movies.
By this stage the references are piling up (there's even a wave of Bride copycats), though thankfully this isn't a film that takes itself too seriously. At one point a mob of New York movie-goers somehow find flaming torches to help in their monster-hunt; Frank's obsession with musicals leads him to fantasise himself in top hat and tails singing "Putting on the Ritz", which got a big laugh in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein back in the 70s.
Buckley's Bride is at the center of this swirling malestrom, but she doesn't quite hold it together. For much of the film the character is flailing about trying to find herself, too busy running to find any obstacles she can push against, while Frank is too decent a guy to be the enemy this feminist take could use to define itself - even if he does have a very rom-com style secret that could tear the young (well, they're not getting any older) lovers apart.
But while this never stitches itself together into a satisfying creation, the many parts are entertaining enough on their own to make this a thrilling, if occasionally frustrating, experience. You may not love the whole, but there'll be parts you take to heart. Isn't that the way love goes?
- Anthony Morris
No comments:
Post a Comment