The extraordinary love affair between Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Byshe Shelley and the resulting penning of Frankenstein is manna from heaven for storytelling.
But the clunky treatment by director Haifaa Al-Mansour and a cast guilty of overacting (Bel Powley as Mary’s stepsister, Gail, in particular) undermines the story and the quiet performances of Elle Fanning and Stephen Dillane as her father who disapproves of her love affair with the 21 year-old married Shelley.
Engaging as a story but sadly, as a film, a misfire.
Rating: 47%
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda, Women Without Shadows)
Writer: Emma Jensen
Main cast: Elle Fanning (The Beguiled, Maleficent), Stephen Dillane (Darkest Hour, Welcome to Sarajevo), Bel Powley (A Royal Night Out, Diary of a Teenage Girl)
An Opinion or Two 