Mary Shelley (4 Stars)

After watching this film a second time today I read some critical reviews, and I was surprised to find that it isn't very highly rated. That's difficult for me to understand. It's a beautiful, well-told story. What isn't to like?

The film tells the story of Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley) in her early years, from the ages of 16 to 18, with a few final scenes when she was 21. The one criticism made by the experts that I can understand, if not completely agree with, is that we don't get inside Mary's head and fully understand her. This isn't bad story telling, in my opinion, it's because she was quiet and reserved. She was surrounded by young people who were flamboyant and debauched, but she retained her moral values. They weren't religious values, they were her own, the result of her own contemplations.

She was 18 when she wrote her famous novel "Frankenstein". She spent three years trying to get it published, but it was turned down everywhere as a book unsuitable to have been written by a woman. It was finally published anonymously and was greatly acclaimed. It was generally considered to have been written by her husband, Percy Shelley, but he denied it, and the second edition was published with her name.

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This is another film that has only been released on DVD in Britain, not Blu-ray. Shame on you!