The Bride! is guilty of overindulging in feminist buzzwords and girl power imagery; it even has Buckley's Bride jarringly screaming "Me too! Me too!" in the final act. But it never lives up to the radical display of female autonomy it promised. And therein lies the real tragedy.

"The Bride!," in theaters Friday, incorporates social justice, dance and even Mary Shelley herself in a bold new take on "The Bride of Frankenstein."