The Mosley Review: The Bride!

I'm all for storytellers coming into a space and breaking every rule or going against the grain of what's mainstream. That's how our great artisans of cinema started. They broke the mold and were experimental in delivering stories that had a message. With that being said, sometimes when trying to break out of the norm, you go too far and end up trying to say too much without a central point to pull focus. Unfortunately, that's what I believe happened here. There are so many themes and truths of the horrible things that happened in the 1930's and this film decided to focus on maybe three of them at the same time. I enjoyed that the story was a highlight of the mental hysteria and the atrocities committed against women by mobsters, Hollywood and society in general while being imbedded within a story about freedom. I just listed at least four storylines happening in this film and all are valid, but its depicted in such a chaotic way that doesn't really flow. Its a treat to see so much crammed into one film, but I definitely felt that there were decisions made to cut out perhaps the missing pieces that made it all worth it. All of this was led by a fantastic cast of the most talent A-listers, but a few of them were truly wasted.

Jessie Buckley delivers a stellar, energetic and chaotic performance Ida / The Bride and an interpretation of Frankenstein's author Mary Shelly. As Ida, she brings to life a woman that is empty on the inside as she is used and abused as essentially a call girl to the rich and powerful. I loved that once she's resurrected, she doesn't lose herself completely but rather starts to find her own strength. Her mental affliction manifests as Mary Shelly and the amount of switching back and forth between her physicality, vocal work and dialogue was excellent. As Shelly, she is wrathful, strong, violent and speaks the truth with such a vocabulary that inspires woman around her. She really channeled a true version of 1930's Harley Quinn. Christian Bale was great and sheepish as Frank. I liked that he wanted to live a quiet life after witnessing over 100 years of atrocities. His loneliness was heartfelt and once he finally gets a bride that is like him, he begins to open up and you see him come alive. His chemistry with Ida was great as they work together as a Bonnie and Clyde duo mixed with a dash of Sid and Nancy and drop of Joker and Harley Quinn. They feed off each others’ energies so well and were fun to see go off in a partiular dance scene. Annette Bening was classy as Dr. Cornelia Euphronious. Her curiosity to study Frank was fun and I did like how they sort of cared for one another in a scientific way. Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz were good as Detective Jake Wiles and his assistant Myrna Malloy. Through them, the Bonnie and Clyde aspect fo the story kicks off as their on the case. This is where I felt the characters were not really fleshed out enough for me to care because on the one hand, you have a disillusioned detective with a secret that seemed to come out of nowhere and on the other you have the same theme of women in the workplace not being respected. It was repetitious to the point of nauseam and didn't really have a satisfying resolution. Both Peter and Penelope were good in the film, but seemed to not really have much to do with their amazing talents. Jake Gyllenhaal was fun as the movie star, Ronnie Reed. He was Frank's idol and I did enjoy his musical numbers. Their eventual meeting was another theme of "don't meet your heroes" that was handled pretty well.

The score by Hildur Guðnadóttir was fantastic as she underscores the darker tones of the film and the more chaotic visuals. Visually, the film is gorgeous as the 1930's cityscapes and alleys added to the level of grit and grime. Like I said before, the film suffers from the excessive amount of chaos and not much focus on a central plot. Yes, I did enjoy seeing Ida stand up speak out against the injustice committed against women of the era and how corrupt law enforcement was, but what else are we trying to say that hasn't been said? How many times are we gonna show that almost every man that she comes across wants to sexually and physically assault her? Not everyone was evil back then. Also, I get that there was a love story in the middle of this, but it dips in and out and makes Frank a bit of a villain at times with his gaslighting of Ida. There was just too much going on in the story for its own good. Overall, I applaud writer and director Maggie Gyllenhaal for trying to do something different, but there needed to be a bit more structure and a concise goal of the story for it to be memorable. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!