[wpdevart_youtube]6EaDRhPm1DM[/wpdevart_youtube]Mary Shelley
***
Dir: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Starring: Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth
(UK, 12A, 2hrs)
The young woman behind one of the most famous horror stories of all time, Mary Shelley, gets a proper appraisal in this mostly convincing biopic with a strong and welcome female perspective.
Elle Fanning, with a very passable English accent, plays Mary, a woman of ferocious, precocious intelligence, intrigued by Gothic literature, much to the annoyance of her stepmother, played by Joanne Froggatt. Her father William Godwin (Stephen Dillane), a renowned philosopher and novelist, and her step sister Claire (Bel Powley) are far more accommodating.
Mary’s mother of course, was Mary Wollstonecraft, a renowned advocate of women’s rights of the era, and a spiritual ancestor of the suffragettes. With such a heritage, Mary Shelley has plenty of fire in her bones. She embarks on an affair with poet Percy Shelley, (a callow Douglas Booth) and unaware that he is married, goes on a whirlwind tour of Europe, in a family-friendly portrait of teenage debauchment. It culminates in a night telling ghost stories with the arrogant Lord Byron, (Tom Sturridge) amidst the creation of her novel, Frankenstein.
Mary’s love life is compelling, but the misogyny she faced from literary society as she publishes her story is even more so. No one could believe that an 18-year-old woman could create the horrors and philosophical musings of Frankenstein, so people at the time believed her lover Percy Shelley to be its true author. Mary’s battle against the establishment is intriguing and deserving of a film of its own, but instead we get a solid representation of her life, a snap shot of sexual debauchery and a winning central performance from Fanning.
It’s handsomely shot, rails against certain period drama stereotypes, but also feels a little glib and clunky at times. The performances raise it above normal fare, but the film itself hints at deeper more intriguing elements to explore. Director Al-Mansour, who brought us the excellent Wadjda, does give the film a feminist bent, and Mary Shelley’s story is full of fire and relevance in today’s society, but falls short of its ambitions.
words Keiron Self
Opens July 6