We always caution our readers to be at least somewhat wary of the first reactions to any movie (especially when the critics in question are given the VIP treatment), and the full reviews for The Bride! are a perfect example of why it tends to be best to wait until the embargo lifts for a more balanced consensus.
While the reactions were mostly glowing, the reviews are decidedly more mixed, and quite a lot of them lean negative.
Even so, Maggie Gyllenhaal's direction comes in for high praise, as does the filmmaker's decision to take some "big swings" (you're going to read those two words a lot in these reviews), even if not all of them pay off. The performances are also said to elevate the material, although not everyone was overly impressed by Jessie Buckley's turn as the titular Bride.
The Bride! is currently sitting at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 79 reviews.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Gyllenhaal revealed that a number of changes were made after test-screening audiences reacted negatively to some of the movie's more violent scenes.
“There’s sexual violence. There’s violence. Because it’s a big studio movie, we tested and tested it. We had big screenings in malls, where people came to see it, which I had never been a part of as an actress or a director before. So fascinating,” she recalled. “And one of the things that they brought up was the violence: Is it too violent? And I was talking about it with a girlfriend of mine, who said — and she wasn’t being reductive — ‘I wonder if you had been a man making this movie, if you would have had the same response.'”
From Maggie Gyllenhaal (Academy Award-nominated writer/director of The Lost Daughter) and starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley and Academy Award winner Christian Bale comes THE BRIDE! A bold, iconoclastic take on one of the world’s most compelling stories.
"A lonely Frankenstein (Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious (five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride (Buckley) is born. What ensues is beyond what either of them imagined: Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!"
The film stars Buckley, Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, with Bening, Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz. Maggie Gyllenhaal directs from her own screenplay and produces alongside Oscar nominee Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman Keren. The executive producers are Carla Raij, David Webb and Courtney Kivowitz.