The Bride! review

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Is The Bride! a monster movie masterpiece or hot mess?

Let's talk The Bride! Part horror, part gangster picture, part Hollywood musical, part feminist manifesto... and not what anyone expected. Maggie Gyllenhaal's wildly ambitious follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, The Lost Daughter, stars Jessie Buckley as The Bride, Christian Bale as a vulnerable Frank, Annette Bening as the eccentric scientist who revives them, and Penélope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard as the detectives closing in. We're discussing what Gyllenhaal gets gloriously right, where the film's ambition outpaces its execution, whether Buckley's extraordinary performance could earn her another Oscar nomination, and why – even with a divisive critical reception – The Bride! might still be the most interesting cinema release of 2026 so far.

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