Mary Shelley is a 2018 biographical drama about a love affair that resulted in the writing of one of Frankenstein.
There is hardly a name more synonymous with horror and classic literature than Frankenstein, a work that has inspired countless writers and readers and been adapted for the screen dozens of times and in as many iterations. Nearly as famous is the book’s author, who is credited with delivering much more than its gothic tale of dread, but a story of branching themes still discussed some two hundred years on. With director Haifaa Al-Mansour‘s latest Mary Shelley, we track the authorship of this story and the young writer’s relationship with her inspirations for the book in a film that greatly romanticizes its subject but nonetheless provides an entertaining glimpse into the history of a story that came to shape modern horror.
At sixteen-years-old, in 1814, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) lives under the strict traditional conventions of her father William Godwin (Stephen Dillane) and her puritanical stepmother (Joanne Froggatt). She finds refuge at the grave of her mother, reading and writing her own stories, which she conceals from her parents, often leaving her uninspired in working for the family business. Circumstances have Mary meeting popular poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth), who takes an instant attraction to the fiery young woman, despite his marriage to another, whom he claims he has no love for. Mary and Shelley take to a scandalous relationship, which separates her from her father but not her younger sister Claire (Bel Powley) who herself becomes involved with Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge), and then an 1816 summer in Lake Geneva that would change all their destinies … and modern literature.
Not the first film based on Mary’s life and the events that unfold that creative season in Switzerland, this latest is a rather staid version fit for the modern age, populated with beautiful people in somewhat stagey reproductions of the era. It’s moody and lightly conflicted but earnestly acted with a straight-forward track that doesn’t stray too far from expectations, rife with all kinds of period dialogue and costuming. It does at least block in well the stages of Mary’s journey as we witness impactful moments that lead to her greatest work.
Al-Mansour doesn’t deal in extravagance, her film a rather subdued approach relying on its lengthy conversations and philosophical exchanges that shape Shelley’s troubling relationship. It’s all laid out in a straight line with theatrical appeal, the sets and direction that of a play, the limited musical score only occasionally offering a bit of movement as it travels Mary through significant moments, including an on-the-nose scene when she sits in an audience to a show featuring some clever use of electricity. However, Al-Mansour does bring to life a few important moments that Shelley herself recounted in her own words that work well.
Fanning is well cast and as one of her generation’s more fearless actors, gives the young Mary great presence. She’s fun to watch and always convincing even as she and Booth don’t quite have the spark it needs. Their relationship often plays out rather perfunctorily and with tempered histrionics, giving the story a sort of guided tour feel than something more significant.
There’s no denying the interest in learning about the origins of such great literary works and for fans of Frankenstein and its author, Mary Shelley will certainly scratch an itch. Another terrific turn from Fanning, who is the film’s ultimate savior, makes it worth a look, even if it doesn’t quite stir as well it could.