Mary Shelley (2018)

This film remains with me 24 hours after viewing. It maybe centers too much on Mary Shelley's relationship with her husband Percy and not enough on her own emotional and philosophical development that finally led to the writing of Frankenstein. However, it has something that has got under my skin. Despite their privilege, these were bold characters who were intent to push outside the social constraints of the day, preferring to be cut off by their families rather than smother their creative fires. They are debauched and destructive, Byron excessively so in this film, but their poetic influence is still with us today. Unhindered by all the creativity sapping distractions of our modern life, mobile phones, sports, additive series etc., they really took it to the edge. I found the film inspiring. Beautiful soundtrack too.

Mary Godwin (Elle Fanning) has known loss all her life. Her mother died soon after childbirth. Her beloved father supported her learning despite his struggling book business. He sends her to stay in Scotland with the Baxters. There she is taken with young budding poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). He follows her back to London promising to pay her father's debts. Mary is shocked when his wife and child show up. Despite the scandalous abandonment and her father's disapproval, she runs away with him taking her younger step-sister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley) along with them. Percy is cut off from his family and they struggle for money. She faces further abandonment as he pursues the philosophy of free love. Claire has a fling with famed writer Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge). Mary finds common cause with Dr. John Polidori. At age 18, she writes the seminal work drawing from her loss of mother, child, and possibly her husband.This story has lots of good potential and a solid performance by Fanning. This is a biopic of one of the great literary figures. She has a great story to tell. It's the highest priority to zero in on the subject's central premise. For Mary, it should tie in with abandonment for her monster. Instead, this is a muddled narrative that fails to focus on that singular idea. Although Isabel Baxter may be a big part of a specific part of her life, there's no need for her since all that's necessary from that section is an introduction to Percy. Percy's free love demand seems to come out of nowhere and yet it's a big part of their common philosophy. There is a lack of intellectual understanding of these characters. Despite all the flaws, Fanning is an appealing lead actress and she holds the screen to the end. Mary Shelley lived a compelling life and this movie gives a fleeting glimpse into it.

An important decent movie with some great performances & beautiful plot. A true story of Mary Godwin that got inspired by her miserable life & love affair to write her first masterpiece & how she struggled as a female author to get her chance of publishing.

This period biopic centres on the 16-year-old writer Mary Wollstonecraft who would go on to become ever famous for writing the novel Frankenstein, which is amongst the most celebrated of all literature from the Romantic era. The film tries to unearth via her life experiences what motivated her to create this story about a tragic, isolated monster and its selfish creator. Specifically, her experiences with her husband the poet Percy Shelley and the libertine writer Lord Byron are considered in some way relevant. As such the film has a feminist slant to it, given that at the time women were simply not allowed to write such dark material. As such, the book was published anonymously in 1818, with her name only appearing on it from 1823 onwards. Having read the novel, it has to be said that it is seriously far from light-weight stuff and is highly literate from start to finish; overall an incredible achievement for an 18-year old.Elle Fanning stars in the lead role. I had previously seen her appear as the main character in the slick and style-driven horror movie The Neon Demon (2016), and it appears she is putting together an interesting body of work. She does good work here and leads the picture well. It could possibly be argued that the film could have delved a little more into the Frankenstein material itself and tapped into the imagery and poetry of its images, as it is, it is a much more grounded presentation of the events - certainly a lot more so that Ken Russell's Gothic (1986), which was a phantasmagorical version of events at Byron's Geneva house on the fateful night in which the Frankenstein story germinated. Having said all that, I actually preferred Mary Shelley to Gothic, and appreciated the more straight-ahead biopic approach. It allowed us to understand the characters and context a little more. And while it could have perhaps been a little bolder in some ways, I do have to say that I nevertheless found it to be a very compelling period drama about a true heroine and pioneer.