March 10, 2026
The spirit of author Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) was caught in limbo, venting her frustration of her early death at age 53, which prevented her from writing a sequel for her masterpiece "Frankenstein." Impulsively, she possessed the body of young woman in the year 1936 named Ida (Jessie Buckley also!), a moll partying with kingpin Lupino (Zlatko Buric) and his gangsters in a Chicago club one fateful night. After causing a scandal, Ida fell down the stairs and died.
At around the same time, Frankenstein's monster, who went by the name Frank (Christian Bale), sought out the institute of reinvigoration scientist Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening), requesting her to create a female companion for him as he had been very lonely existing alone for the past 100 years. They dug up the most recent female corpse buried in the local cemetery for Dr. Euphronius to reanimate. That body turned out to be Ida's.
Jessie Buckley's film career is on a roll. She is well on her way to winning the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as a long-suffering mother in "Hamnet" (2025). She may well be on her way to another Oscar nomination next year as she went totally to the opposite extreme this time around. Her Ida was a wild, uninhibited character, with that distinctive splatter stain on her right cheek when she coughed out crystalloid solution upon waking up.
Christian Bale gave us his unconventional interpretation of a more mature Frankenstein's monster, a century after his creation. While he still had a violent streak within him, Bale's Frank was charming as he was shown as a fan of movies, particularly those starring his idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal). One of the most memorable scenes here was an all-out dance number to the tune of "Puttin' on the Ritz" in a New York City hotel ballroom.
This over-the-top, off-kilter film, only the second film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, with rich Hollywood references, from Astaire-Rogers musicals to "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967). Aside from her brother Jake, she also cast her husband Peter Sarsgaard as Detective Jack Wiles. Her character's names reflect her inspiration with Ida Lupino, an actress who also became a director. Gyllenhaal's feminist bent is quite apparent with liberated females like Ida, Dr. Euphronius, aspiring detective Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz) and Mary Shelley herself controlling the narrative. 7/10
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