60 Second Verdict: Mary Shelley
60 Second Verdict: Mary Shelley
21 July 2018
A biopic about Mary Shelley is long overdue, given the life, loves and labours which she went through in her private and public life.
In the early 19th Century, English teen Mary Godwin (played by Elle Fanning) dreams of being an author like her father and deceased mother. But social expectations and gender roles stifle her options, before she meets popular poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). Their scandalous relationship produces joy, pain, despair – and paves the way for 18-year-old Mary to write one of modern literature’s masterpieces, Frankenstein.
WHAT’S GOOD
Mary Shelley’s novice novel became an undeniable landmark of literature and has influenced the art of horror ever since. A biopic about her is long overdue, given the life, loves and labours which she went through in her private and public life. Mary Shelley the movie is well acted, especially Fanning, who offers an engaging mix of innocence, steeliness and sorrow. The entire production looks the part of a British period piece and its pretty interesting to get a taste of what inspired the formation of such a dark, defining novel.
WHAT’S NOT
Mary Shelley is a lot like another tepid biopic this year about another famous Mary. Just as Mary Magdalene presents itself as fact, but scholars, history buffs and interested fans challenge its claims, worthy, if stiff, Mary Shelley has encountered strong opposition to what it depicts as fact. Actually, Mary Shelley has come in for more criticism because the team behind Mary Magdalene’s did more to let audiences know that what’s on-screen might not be 100 per cent true. In contrast, Mary Shelley claims true story status while playing fast and loose with Mary and Percy’s relationship, the construction of her legendary novel and, especially, Mary’s own feminist agenda. Again, as with Mary Magdalene, Mary Shelley also has been deliberately constructed to be a female empowerment movie for our times. Such intentions have turned Mary Shelley into a forced, fanciful tribute that can lack focus and weight.
SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING: As the life and actions of Mary Shelley are written by this biopic, prepare to be sceptical about - and confused by - what it projects. While I found it hard to swallow that Mary Shelley in real-life would have been the same brand of female empowerment warrior that she is presented as on-screen, another artistic choice left me even less satisfied. The team behind Mary Shelley seem, through their leading character, to want to encourage audiences to consider an approach to life that grants us ownership over everything that happens to us. Increasingly, Mary has a convenient mantra of being OK with all she experiences, as if she somehow is the author or architect of them all. Yet, at the same time, this movie itself demonstrates that that clearly is just not true. So many things happen to this young woman which were evidently beyond her control – so where is the reasoning behind trying to claim Mary somehow was actually the mastermind of them? I just don’t get it, partly because I understand our universe to be created and ruled by one God, not by humans. With that in mind, Mary Shelley’s offer of ownership of everything just rings hollow – and false.
Mary Shelley is now showing and is rated PG.
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