This is a difficult one.

Ida is killed for not being able to keep her mouth shut about a Mafia bosses inclination to kill girls and cut out their tongues. At the same time, Frankenstein’s Monster is looking to end his century long loneliness with the help of a mad scientist. They end up rejuvenating (I think that’s the word they used) Ida. Ida has no memories but has a new lean on life, so she uses it. However, ‘Frank’ also uses her lack of memories to manipulate her to come with him. After an altercation, they end up fugitives, rampaging through USA.

Now, I wanted to like this so much. It’s stylistic, it’s irreverent, it has punk aesthetics, it has an appearance by Fever Ray, one of my all-time favorite artists. So, what’s not to love? That’s the problem. It’s hard to pinpoint. The movie does a lot of work to achieve something, but it feels like it never fully lands, wherever it’s supposed to.

Not that it’s completely worthless. It is still interesting and at times fun. It just feels like it never finds exactly the tone it striving for.

As I said, this is a difficult one. I have a gut feeling that this might become a cult movie, but that would take time and it’s hard to see Warner Bros. having that kind of a patience under their new corporate overlords. What could possibly make it a cult movie? The overt feminism for one. This isn’t your generic strong female character girl boss bullshit. The Bride! never goes on a full rampage, killing a bunch of men. She just yearns to live and that inspires others. However, that is handled pretty clumsily during the movie.

The best things about the movie happens actually after the movie has ended and this is (obviously) a spoiler: Bunch of women wearing makeup mimicking The Bride’s blackened scar on their cheeks, have taken over the club of the Mafia boss and are torturing him. It’s just that the road there doesn’t work even if this single scene is great.

There are other positives. Being an actor, Maggie Gyllenhaal has been able to gather a great cast. Jessie Buckley gets to do something she usually doesn’t as she is so often plays very straight characters (in Hamnet there’s hints of something deeper but in something like I’m Thinking of Ending Things, she’s actually the straightest thing in a very weird movie). Annette Benning gets to be a mad scientist, Penelope Cruz gets to grow into a detective at a time when female cops were non-existent, for Christian Bale this is just Tuesday.

Overall, this is more interesting than good. If that’s enough for you to see a movie, then this is a movie to see. Otherwise, not really.