Cozying up to a good book while relaxing in a graveyard isn’t for everyone. But it feels right that a new biopic introduces its title character this way, because the image fits our impression of the darkly gifted author of “Frankenstein.”
In this opening scene of “Mary Shelley,” the teenager is haunting the grave of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, herself a brilliant writer and radical thinker, whose death a few days after Mary’s birth left the daughter with understandably charged feelings about creating new life — biological or literary.
As we meet young Mary, we see her worry about her beloved father (an excellent Stephen Dillane), chafe at the discipline of her stepmother (Joanne Froggatt), and share secrets with stepsister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley, great in “Diary of a Teenage Girl”).
Soon Mary meets the poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). Here, alas, is where the movie shows its true colors, swamping the lovers in great gobs of orchestral music and golden light. Scandals follow (he already had a wife), and the couple head to the shore of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816.
This oft-chronicled session puts them in a villa with Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge, “Far from the Madding Crowd”) and the hapless John Polidori (Ben Hardy). Saucy Claire also settles in, a flirtatious third wheel with the Shelleys and already pregnant with Byron’s child. During their time at the villa, the group will challenge each other to conjure up ghost stories, out of which Mary wrought “Frankenstein.”
The circumstances of that summer have been frequently dramatized (including movies from Ken Russell and Roger Corman, “Gothic” and “Frankenstein Unbound,” respectively), but rarely as dully as here. Past depictions have emphasized romantic indulgence, this one puts the blame on toxic masculinity.
Director Haifaa Al-Mansour, whose “Wadja” put Saudi cinema on the map, is simpatico with Mary Shelley’s struggle with second-class status (“Frankenstein” was originally published anonymously), but unable to sew together the spare parts — costume drama, romance novel, horror story — and bring them to life.
Byron comes across as an alpha frat boy, and poor Mary — allegedly a free-thinking, boundary-crossing explorer — gets to play the scold. It wants Mary to inhabit the role of feminist icon, but the problem with making icons is there isn’t much character left around the edges.
Fanning was under 20 when the movie was shot, which reminds us of how young Mary was when she took the full genius plunge. Booth and Sturridge may be talented actors, but here they look as though they’re prepping for the runway at Milan Fashion Week — when your Polidori is deeper and more poetic than Shelley and Byron, your movie has a problem. The real people depicted here must have been more interesting than this, and their monsters much more original.
‘Mary Shelley’ (2 stars)
An unsatisfying take on the author of “Frankenstein” and her circles of friends, which included Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. Elle Fanning, still a teenager, reminds us of how young Mary Shelley was when she wrote her great book, but the movie can’t decide whether its free-loving characters are heroes or villains.
Rating: PG-13, for subject matter
Opening: Grand Illusion Cinema
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