On March 15, Jessie Buckley almost surely will be presented with the Academy Award for best actress for her terrific performance in last year’s “Hamnet.”

She’s already getting a jump on the race for that same Oscar in 2027.

Buckley is ground-shakingly good in “The Bride!” — writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s unflinching tale built around the best gal of Frankenstein’s monster.

The film is fiercely feminist, a little punk, more than a bit surreal, leaning much heavier on absurdist romance than horror and, ultimately, an unnatural force of nature.

This tale — inspired initially by a tattoo of the Bride of Frankenstein Gyllenhaal saw at a party and later her viewing of 1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein,” which, like every Frankenstein movie, stems from Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” — begins with Shelley. Long dead from her bout with brain cancer and portrayed by Buckley, she speaks to us from beyond the grave, preparing us for the story she is about to present.

Next, Ida (also Buckley), a young woman in 1930s Chicago who is suffering through a dinner with obnoxious mobsters in a gangster-owned establishment, becomes possessed by Mary. She puts on quite a show, earning a fatal push down a flight of stairs for her efforts.

Gyllenhaal then introduces us to Frankenstein’s monster, aka “Frank” (Christian Bale), who’s come to Chicago to enlist the help of a groundbreaking scientist, Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening, “American Beauty”). He confides in her that he is crushingly lonely and that in his many years of life, he has never experienced certain pleasures, which she understands to be those associated with having a mate.

Initially reluctant, she agrees to help him, and the two dig up a body that proves to be Ida’s. Rather easily “reinvigorated” by Euphronious’ equipment, Ida is brought back in rather rough shape and without her memory, but she rattles off chains of vocabulary owned by Mary and has a penchant for quoting Melville. (Be with the monstrous Frank? “I would prefer not to.”)

Yet, they quickly become a pair, Frank telling her they were married before the accident that robbed her of her memories and that her name is Penelope, aka “Pretty Penny.”

Frank also takes her to the movies, theaters long having served as a haven for him. Specifically, he adores the films of matinee idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal, brother of Maggie).

They soon land in New York City, where they make a splash — first literally, as Frank pilfers pennies from a fountain, and later at a 3D zombie movie and, that same night, inside a fancy ballroom. Gyllenhaal — Maggie, that is — even treats us to an elaborate dance number, which should give you an even better idea as to what you’re in store for with “The Bride!”

As they become a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like tandem, one that sparks the imagination of women across the land, they are pursued by a pair of cops: the laidback Detective Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard, husband of Maggie) and his secretary, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”), who’s clearly the better sleuth. They’re also hunted by a henchman (John Magaro, “September 5”) of a powerful Chicago gangster (Zlatko Burić, “Superman”).

For as unconventional as “The Bride!” is overall, it milks tension from the fact that Frank has based his relationship with Penny on a lie, which is about as conventional a piece of conflict as you’ll find in a romance. Really, though, that’s one of the few nits we can pick.

For starters, this very cool movie looks very cool, thanks to contributors such as director of photography Lawrence Sher (“Joker”), production designer Karen Murphy (“Elvis”), costume designer Sandy Powell (“The Favourite”) and, last but not least, the hair and makeup team of Kay Georgiou and Nadia Stacey, who contribute largely to the Bride’s distinctive appearance.

Buckley is so impactful here — as Mary, Ida and the Bride — that it’s hard to capture her brilliance with words. Every choice she makes is perfect, every touch divine.

How fantastic is she? She makes Bale (“The Dark Knight,” “Vice”) — one of the finest actors of the last couple of decades — almost an afterthought. That’s not a knock on him; it’s a credit to her.

This is her party, and she’ll thrive if she wants to.

(“The Bride! contains strong/bloody violent content, sexual content/nudity and language)

Tribune News Service

‘THE BRIDE!

Rated R. At the AMC Boston Common, Causeway, South Bay Center, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, Landmark Kendall Square and suburban theaters.

Grade: A-