The Bride! (2026) Movie Review

Hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network.

I am your host Kevin Reed and this is the review of The Bride which stars Jesse Buckley and Christian Bale.

This is based loosely based on Mary Shelley's.

1818 novel of frankenstein and this retelling in 1930 chicago frankenstein monster asks a doctor to create a companion for him together they give life to a murdered woman known as

the bride sparking romance police interest and a radical social change this film is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal,

one of my highly

anticipated films of this year it was initially supposed to come out in 2025 i think in october or november somewhere around that time but they pushed it back all the way till march of this year and i

was looking forward to it i i i've become a huge fan of jesse buckley going back to my first time seeing her was on fargo i believe season you

four of fargo three or four i don't remember it's the one with chris rock a lot of people arguably say that that's the worst season of fargo but she was on there she played this nurse and she was dynamite

on that show and from that moment on i was i was sold on jesse buck it it looks like she's on her way to winning her first academy award i think the academy awards are next week

at the time of this review let's so we'll see if she actually wins for hamnet but man i've been a huge fan of this actress and everything that she's in so i was excited to see her take on this particular role if you don't know if you haven't

seen the bride of frankenstein you know that came out in the

1930s you you look first and foremost you don't need to watch that movie

to know what's going on in this movie obviously but it's it's if you have seen it you know the bride of frankenstein only has the bride of frankenstein in the last five minutes of that movie then she is not in that movie at

all yet it's called the bride of frankenstein and she has zero lines of dialogue she just gives that one scream there you know the patented scream

that we've seen in clips and memes and stuff like that that's all that's it that's it so there's nothing to build on as far as source material is concerned for this character because the bride of frankenstein isn't in the novel per se you

know it isn't in mary shelley's novel it was created for the movie so this this take of the character

is to take you know you you just gonna have to run with it there is no uh uh lore to this character other than the fact that frankenstein wants a companion so that that box was checked obviously so everything

after that it's all jesse buckley it's all maggie gyllenhaal and how they craft this character man man jesse buckley

let me tell y'all something if y'all haven't seen her in anything if you didn't watch hamnet which i get you know but it's for it's for uh a niche audience but like this movie is to be completely

honest with you but if you haven't seen her perform if you you have no idea who this actress is i implore you to go see the bra she is

amazing in this role my god she is amazing in this role the stuff that she has to do and go through and put up with is i don't know i don't i was sitting there in the theater trying to come

up with my own list internally of actresses who can possibly play this role and i couldn't think of one i couldn't think of one actress

who could pull this off the way she is just killing it.

literally in some instances in this movie she is amazing in this role is almost to the point where you got to give that cliched uh response like oh she was born for this role almost it almost feels that she was born to play this character she

was amazing and the mere fact this is how amazing she was.

She is sharing the strength.

with christian bell christian bell who is famously known for throwing himself into every role that he plays he does male in performance is not in christian bell's uh vocabulary it just is impossible for him to do i don't care what the movie is whether

it's american psycho batman uh the dark knight or or uh uh fighter or american hustle or uh uh

what was it dick when he played dick cheney i don't care what it is he's gonna throw himself into every role that he plays and the mere fact that he is frankenstein's monster in this movie is

enough to get your behind into a theater to see christian bell was amazing as frankenstein's monster.

Because...

Now,

in this instance,

unlike The Bride,

where we don't have a lot of canon or source material to kind of compare to,

we have a whole bunch that we can look at when it comes to Frankenstein's monster.

I mean,

we just saw one last year with

Jacob Elori before that Frankenstein film that was on Netflix,

you know.

And through the last 70,

80 years.

a film where they had buku versions of frankenstein's monster we have a lot to glean on so when it came to christian bale how can you dive into this character yet make it his own or make it his own and he found a way to do that but

still keep frankenstein at his core that you believe that this is frankenstein's monster alive and well in the

1930s oh

powerhouse but the point i was trying to get at here was the fact that jesse buckley made you forget that christian bale was even in this movie as much as i'm lifting up christian bale on how excellent of a performance he gave it

pales in comparisons to jesse buckley now of course the movie is called the bride so this isn't a frankenstein movie

this is not that you're not getting that so it's no surprise that that character is taking a back seat that's fine but we're talking christian bell here you know christian bell has played supporting characters before and outshined the league you know i.e

fighter and uh uh american hustle and all this other he has outshined the other actors not not purposely He's just that.

good and so to be outshined by this young lady was was a tour de force i feel yes those performances is what drives this movie um the supporting cast you

have peter scars guard who is ironically maggie gyllenhaal's husband uh he's in this film annette benning is in this film jake gyllenhaal who also ironically Lee

is maggie gyllenhaal's brother oh i thought it was a coincidence they added the same last name but he pops up in here uh uh uh penelope cruz is in this movie as well i didn't expect to see her in here i didn't

even know she was in the movie but she was in it and did a pretty good job all of the actors here did great nothing with the performances it was absolutely

nothing bad to say about the performances in this movie the sets were amazing you know it felt

1930s it felt like this was a lived in

1930s chicago and new york when the scenes when they were in new york was even even more amazing you know it was shot wonderfully uh where this movie where this movie lost me was

the screenplay

We went all over the place here.

It was too.

much going on way too much going on and i get where they were going or what they were trying to say i guess to put it uh uh more plainly there but it

was just too much man and the little moments where you kind of were getting this social commentary going on they were so few and far between and I think

You could have scratched that out the whole movie because there was a story there to tell.

And I see that they were trying to tell the story.

So I'm not knocking them from trying to tell this story or trying to drive this point home.

But they didn't give it enough time to breathe and manifest throughout the film to where it would have had a deeper impact once we got to the end of the film.

I didn't feel that impact at the end,

at least with the ending that we got.

Speaking of which,

the impact and what was going on through the film,

Maggie Gyllenhaal.

I think Maggie Gyllenhaal is a really good director.

I think she did a really good job here with the movie.

But

I can tell that there was some cracks in the armor.

The pacing was a little off.

The pacing just didn't quite get there.

When we get moments of dramatic...

tension we kind of move on to another scene and then uh the soft quiet scenes when we're supposed to be getting that emotion rammed up then we we move on and then we on to another scene it's just like boom hit this boom hit this it wasn't it wasn't a steady flow which

leads me to the end and like i mentioned earlier the ending just didn't have that most emotional impact

that you would want from this type of movie the end it it was just unsatisfying it was unsatisfying end to me and it was it was it upset me because i was willing to

live with the the the pacing gaps and stuff like that because i was enjoying what was on the screen i didn't get thrown off

to the point where i was like oh man this this ain't working because i can follow the story it wasn't thrown off to the point where i was lost and couldn't couldn't follow what was going on and all you you can follow what was going on here and that's not to say that it was dumbed down because i am kind of slow but it

wasn't dumbed down it was a real interesting story but the Ending?

It just left.

left you flat i was really just like oh man that's it you know and it was unsatisfying because our our protagonist i guess you can say didn't vanquish the villain oh it's i'm

being real vague because i'm bouncing around the spoilers of it all but it's just it just didn't it just didn't tickle my fancy to say the least.

Um,

I do got to say that.

I do have to say this,

though.

A slight spoiler.

Not the ending.

It's just a scene that happens in the movie.

More like in the middle of the film.

And I got to talk to somebody about it.

I can't just let that eat me up from the inside.

There's a scene in this movie where

Frank and the bride,

they're at this gala or wherever it was.

you

Frank,

who is Frankenstein,

he meets his hero,

his his his onscreen hero who is played by Jake Gyllenhaal,

who was an actor,

you know,

and he meets him there and he's just like starstruck.

You know,

he sees him and the actor,

Jake Gyllenhaal,

he kind of brushes Frank off,

understandably so.

And all of a sudden we go into this dance number and.

It was just out of nowhere,

out of nowhere.

And I mean,

dance number the whole place.

And I'm thinking like,

OK,

is this some type of dream sequence or something like that?

But then suddenly during the dance number,

the police show up and everybody just stops dancing.

And wait,

so this wasn't a dream sequence.

So this was this was really happening.

I don't know.

I know there's some type of symbolism or something in there,

but it went.

completely over my head if it's there please let me know in in the comments and everything i need to know what that was about because it made it came out of nowhere now it was a cool scene that's

the mind-boggling part it was a cool scene cool little sequence and all the dancing and that i enjoyed it

You know,

but it just came out of nowhere.

It was like a failed attempt.

And I'm not accusing them of trying to rip off anybody.

But it was almost like they were trying to do a sinner's,

you know,

the scene.

And when I say that with sinners,

you know what scene I'm talking about.

The scene.

It was because that happened in the middle of sinners.

And it's almost like they tried to do it here.

I don't think that was the intentions.

Matter of fact,

I know that wasn't the intention.

intentions because these two films were filming at around the same time and so it wasn't like they were trying to rip them off but it was it was just weird man it was so weird that that actually took place in the middle of the film anyways

with that being said it sounds like i'm uneven about the movie and that's pretty much where i am i enjoyed what i saw i love crazy i love kooky i love

out of the left field i love originality and all of that is here it was just a little uneven at parts and a little confusing confusing when you get to certain portions of this movie uh to whereas like is this canon is this real is this not real or and

then it's never explained but with all that being said i will recommend it and i think it's it's one of the better films of the year

so far i know it's the early portion of the year isn't it that wasn't a high bar to clear let's be let's be honest because so far in 2026 movies have been poo-poo but this is a really good movie and i do recommend you go see it in the theater it's beautifully shot and it is made to be seen in

the theater the bride gets a letter grade of a b minus yeah i think it's there's a great

I mean,

great movie in here somewhere.

It just didn't quite get there,

and we have to settle with pretty good.

So that's my thoughts on The Bride.

I would love to know your thoughts.

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Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this review of The Bride.

I want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

The Bride! (2026) Movie Review

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