Geek On Film
Brooklyn-born film obsessive Robbie Holmes reviews what's in theaters and on your streaming queue — no hype, no hedging, just honest takes backed by a lifelong love of cinema. Geek on Film drops new episodes weekly with 1er™ same-day instant reactions on major releases, full breakdowns, and occasional deep dives with his friend and the original co-host of GoF Jon Hoche.
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Geek On Film
The Bride!
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Robbie gives a quick review of Maggie Gyllenhaal's latest The Bride!
Rating: ⭐️⭐️1/2
Letterboxd Review: https://boxd.it/do9Pgn
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Welcome to my latest warner. Uh, this time of Maggie Gyllenhall's The Bride. So our friends over at IMDB have this as uh in 1930 Chicago, Frankenstein asks Dr. Arafonius to create a companion. They give life uh to a murdered woman as the bride, sparking romance, police, interest, and radical social change. Written and directed by Maggie Gillinall, and I have it over at Letterboxed as uh two and a half stars. Uh, I was able to go and see this film early with my wife, and it went from being one of my most anticipated films of the year to one of my biggest disappointments. There are a lot of ideas in this movie, and it doesn't really come together. I feel like you have to be on the way, the wavelength of this movie in order for it to work for you. And I wanted nothing more than to be on its wavelength, and I felt lost while watching it. This all pains me because I think that Jesse Buckley is a generational talent, and I think that Chris Christian Bale is one of a kind. This review does not make me happy. Um, so as mentioned, uh our main actors in this movie are Jesse Buckley playing Ida, uh, who is a uh woman who is killed uh in a club early on in the movie, but it opens with a preamble where we see Jesse Buckley in black and white, seemingly as Mary Shelley, calling out across time to Ida uh and seemingly taking her over. Uh, this leads us to uh Christian Baile as Frankenstein or Frank coming to Chicago trying to find uh Dr. Eferonius being played by Annette Benning, who has been a sort of follower of the reinvigorator type of science that is required for Frank to have a companion. This movie goes from the chaos of sort of the the overarching idea of having uh a character being taken over by another character uh in sort of a very dramatic and off-kilter fashion. I think the uh the concepts here of Jesse Buckley's Ida being a woman who has needs and is strong and is complicated and uh I think is really good. I think the problem is the sort of interleaving of the concept that Mary Shelley is taking her over from the past uh is a little off-putting. Um, you have this constant vacillating between uh Jesse Buckley speaking as her character Ida and jumping into sort of a more British accent, uh a little caricaturesque of the 1900s as she's becoming Mary Shelley. Yeah, it it didn't work for me. So that that that was the starting point of the problems. I think you've got an amazing cast. Uh Annette Benning just is chewing the scenery in the scenes that she's a part of. Uh, I find her performance to be big, but I think everything about this movie is pretty big. Um, I think Christian Bale is really good as Frankenstein. Um, I think he has a lot uh to take on here. I think he's the most in control and most uh sort of rounded character that this script has, even though Jesse Buckley is the lead. I think uh Jesse's being asked to do an awful lot in this in this role and is doing a great job, but not telling the story that I wanted to tell. Maybe that's my fault. I think Penelope Cruz as uh Miranda Malloy, who is a uh detective who is often overlooked, uh, and her partner is Peter Skarsgard's Jake Wiles, and then you know, Ronnie Reid is played by Jake Gillinall, who's an uh a silver screen actor that Frankie is uh sort of obsessed with, and we eventually meet. Yeah, the movie is a bit chaotic. You've got John McGarro playing Clyde and Matthew Mayer playing James, these are two like underworld uh people who are forced to go and chase down the bride. Uh eventually, Clyde is chasing down the bride alone. Yeah, it's not uh it didn't work for me. Uh I don't like it. I don't like doing reviews like this, but I did get to see it early, and I feel like this is a movie that um I wished upon a star would be better than it was, or was more like what I was hoping it would be. I think from the first trailer, I was super on board. And by the second trailer, I was starting to question it. And by the time I saw the movie, and with a review embargo in place, I was not surprised by the movie I ended up seeing. Um, all right, that's it for me on the bride. Uh so much going on. I'm still catching up on movies for the Oscars. Um yeah, check out my TikTok. Um, Geekonfilm on TikTok, and uh there's a YouTube channel, Geekonfilm com, where I'm doing a lot of instant reviews. And right now I'm going through all the individual categories of the Oscars on both of those uh locations. So if you'd like to hear me break down the category, sort of the the Oscar-nominated roles or movies, and then I am putting them in the order I think they belong, and then I'm talking about things that could or or should have been nominated instead. So a little bit of Robbie's uh predictions and snubs. Uh, you should take a look. Uh, you should check them out. I'm putting some effort into them. So thank you so much for sticking around. Uh sorry that this wasn't a more positive review, but it is the movie I was presented, and it didn't give me the experience I was hoping for. Uh, have a good day. Bye bye.
