The Bride Is the Wackiest Movie of the Year!

            I did not love Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, The Lost Daughter. It starred Olivia Coleman, who I find to be grating, so that did not help either. So when I saw that she was the director for another movie, my excitement level was minimal, and it was lowered even more when I saw the trailer for The Bride. It looked so goofy and over the top. The characters looked gross, and it just did not look like a movie for me. I thought it was going to be in worst movie of the year contention, but I was pleasantly surprised.

            The Bride starts with the death of Ida, and this was due to her affiliation with the mob. Then Frankenstein shows up in Chicago, and he is looking for a soulmate, so he goes to a scientist, Dr. Euphronious, and he asks her to reanimate a corpse. So Ida is brought back, but her memory is not, so she is a blank slate for Frankenstein to mold, except her wild personality stays. So instead of being Ida, she is now Penelope.  

            When a night out on the town goes wrong, the townsfolk chase them out, and they take a train to New York leaving a mess in their wake. Without trying they seem to be responsible for more and more deaths. So they are constantly having to flee from place to place as police, detectives, and citizens search for them. While parading around New York, Penelope becomes a cultural icon for women and their self-expression. Eventually, all of this comes to a head, and the mob finds her again at the same time as the police and detectives leading to one final shoot out.

            This movie is all over the place, and it is as odd as it looks. That made me both love it and hate it. There are these weird asides, where Jessie Buckley is pretending to be Marry Shelly, and I have no idea what the point of these asides were, and they totally took me out of the movie. The whole opening scene was interspersed with these asides, and I had no idea what was going on. It set a terrible tone, but it turned around quickly when Christian Bale made his appearance.

            Christian Bale was a great Frankenstein, although there were times when he sounded a little too much like Batman. Just like Jacob Elrodi, Bale had to give a very physical performance, but it was different. Bale’s Frankenstein seemed much more bumbling and oafish. He reminded me of the character in Of Mice and Men. This Frankenstein also loved movies. He was constantly in the theater, but he would just go and watch the same movie over and over again. He loved Ronnie Reed pictures, and he would sit there and envision himself in the movie. Frankenstein did not seem to love the physical affection he received from Penelope, but he did love her company and taking her to the movies. So really, he just wanted what all movie lovers want, someone to watch movies with.

            Jesse Buckley does a ton of strange acting in this. Some of it works well, and there are times when her and Bale play off each other very well, but when it is just Penelope/Ida on the screen, it seemed to fall off the hinges. She does a great job of working different accents in to show the different personalities bursting in her head, and she has some very literary line readings that she performs like she is in a Shakespearean play, which makes sense, because in the end, they try to make it a Romeo and Juliet like tragedy.

            I was also excited to see Jake Gyllenhal make an appearance in this film, and it makes sense, because his sister directed it. He plays Ronnie Reed, the actor that Frankenstein loves. Sadly, this is the tamest role in the whole movie, and Jake is known for his unhinged performances, so that was disappointing, but the scene where him and Frankenstein met was cool, because out of nowhere, it turns into this big monstrous dance number, that reminded me of the “Number of the Beast” scene in the Bone Temple, because it seems to come out of nowhere, and everyone gets possessed and start dancing wildly. I wish there were more of these in the film!

            Now for Hoppers, Pixar’s newest film, which discusses environmental issues and communication. Mabel is a girl who was constantly getting in trouble in school, and her grand ma taught her the calming effect that nature can have on a person and its importance. Mabel loved to go to the glade and watch the wildlife move about, but years passed and Mabel grows up, and the new mayor is expanding the highway. He is going to pave right over the glade. The only way for Mabel to save it is to get wildlife back in the glade, so he is not allowed to create this concrete monster.

            Mabel goes to her college professor for help, but she is not given any. But she accidently stumbles upon their secret invention, they can transfer their consciousness into robotic animals and communicate with the local wildlife. So, against her professor’s wishes, Mabel connects to the machine and escapes into the wild as a beaver. She then tries to rally the other animals around her to help them stop the construction of the highway, and of course, there are hiccups and hijinks along the way.

            Mabel and the Mayor have had many run ins where they scream and argue at each other, but neither of them are really listening to what the other has to say. This is symbolic of the ever present discourse online now and on our TVs from various news outlets. Everyone screams their opinion and no one listens to what the other person has to say. There is a lack of compromise, and there is a lack of reason. So at the climax of the movie, the mayor must listen to Mabel, and they have to work together to save the forest and the people. Showing that even the unlikeliest of allies can work together if they just communicate. The king of the mammals said that there is good in everyone, we just have to take the time to see it.

            The whole idea of being able to put your consciousness into a fully functioning animal robot sounds awesome. It would be so much fun to go to an amazing park filled with nature and then get into the mind of a dog and just go and explore all the nooks and crannies. The whole saving the environment and being able to talk to other animals thing would be cool too. I guess.

            Overall, this was a fun weekend at the movies. We got some peak weird cinema, and we got big crowds going to the theaters for a new Pixar movie. It did not live up to the best, but it was definitely an above average animated feature. I give both of these movies 3.5 stars.