Mary Shelley (2017)

Directed by: Haifaa Al-Mansour | 121 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: Ben Hardy, Elle Fanning, Bel Powley, Stephen Dillane, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth, Joanne Froggatt, Tom Sturridge, Derek Riddell, Hugh O’Conor, Stuart Graham, Ciara Charteris, Jack Hickey, Sarah Lamesch

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is one of those writers whose name is less well known than that of her most famous creation. In Mary’s case, it’s the tragic creature we know as Frankenstein’s monster. Little is known about the life of this 19th-century writer, except that she came from an intellectual background, married the romantic poet Shelley and met the eccentric Lord Byron in his circles.

We see all these figures in the English feature film ‘Mary Shelley’, directed by the Saudi (!) Haifaa Al-Mansour. Precisely because so little is known about Mary’s personal life, the director was able to give her imagination plenty of room. Of course she could not ignore the biographical facts. In ‘Mary Shelley’ we see the Godwin family in the domestic circle, Mary’s trip to Scotland, her meeting with Shelley, the friendship with Byron and the role that Mary’s sister Claire plays in this. And finally how Mary creates her monster.

The makers of ‘Mary Shelley’ apparently thought it was a good idea to film the life of their 19th-century heroine in the spirit of 19th-century literature. What we see are not elaborate characters but types, or worse, clichés. There is the tragic heroine, the evil stepmother, the wise father, the temperamental poet, and so on, et cetera. No characters that really touch you.

Another consequence of this approach is the soapy quality of the film. 19th-century literature, often in serial form, had to keep its readers focused. ‘Mary Shelley’ is therefore crammed with dramatic improbabilities and clichés (when Mary tells Shelley during a walk that she is pregnant, Shelley’s ex and child walk by; during the worst rainstorm since the Flood, creditors come along and Mary has to take her flu-like child into the rain). And of course the two romantic souls prefer to meet in an old graveyard.

In this sentimental cliché party, only the acting and production design are perfectly fine. Elle Fanning works hard to make something of her romantic heroine while the streets of London and the old English interiors look beautiful. That doesn’t make this film recommended, but it eases the pain of a missed opportunity.