Reactions
I really enjoy what this movie was trying to do, but it’s difficult to say just how well it managed to do it.
On the one hand, it’s clearly a feminist work. There’s lots of allusions to the suffragette movement, not to mention that the whole premise is the Bride searching for/manifesting her own identity outside of Frankenstein’s creature. I thought this was rather interesting, and it made for some fun social commentary.
I also appreciate Christian Bale’s performance of Dr. Frankenstein’s creature. I think Gyllenhall nailed this better than most Frankenstein movies I’ve seen. Bale’s Creature was, above all else, lonely, which is exactly what Shelley would have done. His character in particular felt continuous with the Creature we met in the original novel, despite drawing inspiration from Boris Karloff’s now classic performance. I appreciate how emotional he was, which I felt was something sadly missing from the Frankenstein movie of last year (2025). There was rage, yes, but Bale’s performance was precisely what you would expect of a lonely, traumatized creation who’s existed in solitude for over 100 years: awkward and endearing, no doubt intelligent.
The visuals were great, too, and I actually enjoyed the somewhat random musical scene.
On the other hand, there was so many plotlines. It felt like the film was about as composite as “Frank” himself. This made it hard to follow at points, but I still enjoyed the ride.
Not only that, but the greatest sin, in my view, was turning Mary Shelley herself into an excessively foul-mouthed, assinically alliterative, possessive spirit. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was fine, but it felt like a mischaracterization of Shelley, turning her into a narrative device.
All things considered, I wouldn’t call this a perfect Frankenstein movie, but I do believe that Gyllenhall understands far more about the source material than most film-makers—if not narratively, then spiritually. Because the core of Frankenstein for me is and always has been how the Creature was not welcome, and was abandoned by his creator. If that Frankenstein sought company, as he did in the original novel, and his wish was granted, it would not be entirely dissimilar to this tangential adaptation to Shelley’s work.