S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+2
Entertainment
+5
Rewatchability
+2
CastJessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz
StreamingTheatrical
S.W.’s Verdict
Gyllenhaal reimagines Bride of Frankenstein as a punk-feminist rampage through 1930s Chicago and the result is ambitious, uneven, and occasionally electrifying. Buckley is fearless — she plays the resurrected woman like a feral animal discovering language and rage in real time. Bale's Frankenstein is vain and pathetic in equal measure. The problem is that the film wants to be a horror film, a crime drama, a romance, and a manifesto simultaneously, and it doesn't always manage the transitions. When it locks in, it's genuinely thrilling. When it doesn't, it's a very expensive art project looking for a thesis.