"Her greatest love inspired her darkest creation." This is Mary Shelley. This romantic period-drama film directed by Haifaa al-Mansour and written by Emma Jensen. Raised by a renowned philosopher father in 18th-century London, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world when she meets the dashing and brilliant poet Percy Shelley. So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy that will transform Mary and fuel the writing of her Gothic masterwork.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Whilst travelling through Europe in 1814, Shelley journeyed along the river Rhine in Germany. She, Percy and Claire stopped in Gernsheim, seventeen kilometres (eleven miles) away from Frankenstein Castle, where an alchemist engaged in experiments two centuries before. Later, she travelled in the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. The topic of galvanism and occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions. Mary, Percy and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made, inspiring the novel. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in 1823.
By late February 2014, al-Mansour was set to direct the film, originally titled A Storm in the Stars, with a script by Jensen and produced by Amy Baer. In late July 2014, Elle Fanning was cast in the film to play the titular character. By late February 2016, Douglas Booth, Tom Sturridge, Bel Powley, Stephen Dillane, Ben Hardy, Maisie Williams, and Joanne Froggatt. Around the same time, principal photography commenced, with filming taking place in Dublin, Ireland, Luxembourg and France.
The film stars Fanning as Mary, Booth as Percy, Sturridge as Lord Byron, Powley as Claire, Dillane as William, Hardy as Polidori, Williams as Isabel, and Froggatt as Mary Jane. Fanning gave a triumphantly tormented performance as the titular historical figure. Clearly al-Mansour found the right actress and she was undoubtedly brilliant. The chemistry between her and Booth couldn't have been more intense. The cast gave top notch performances.
Although Mary Shelley is a well-crafted period piece, it lacks fresh insight into the life of Shelley and her most famous work Frankenstein. Overall, the approach is more solidly contrived than you’d expect, and the alignment of circumstance and social status contributing to the doomed romance is barely fresh, it’s handled with thoughtful decorum. The emotional temperature’s rather restrained as a result, but with strong casting all down the line, elegant visuals balancing verdant and velvet, and a delightfully dramatic and melancholic score, it’s a classy package, all right – just missing the extra spark.
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