Very Cool!!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I already knew Elle Fanning was a wonderful actress, but watching her become a stellar one was mind-blowing! The story was well-paced and it stalled only once or twice, but the acting was what kept me going. I wish this movie became more well-known and well-loved, it deserves every praise! The setting and costumes were wonderful too.

This is a masterpiece of a film. Since I first saw the film Frankenstein (1931) when I was five, I have tried to understand the story, but did not until I saw this film. Incisively and intuitively written, this film begins with a seeming support of all things ultra-liberal--free love, profligacy, drunkenness, drug use, and so on--while all the time building on the reality that those who delve into such lives are self-torturing fools. I rarely give 10s on IMDb, but this one deserves even more.

Emma Jensen took all the facts about the history of the creation of FRANKENSTEIN and with additional writing by Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first Saudi female director ever to direct a Hollywood film, the two ladies have created a marvelous period piece that is a dark psychological study of Mary Wollstonecroft Godwin as she comes to grips with a fragile love relationship (in a time when the concept of feminism didn't exist) and self discovery to write one of the great books of history - that infamous love affair between poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and 18 year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, which resulted in Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein.As the film's synopsis states, She will forever be remembered as the writer who gave the world Frankenstein. But the real life story of Mary Shelley-and the creation of her immortal monster-is nearly as fantastical as her fiction. Raised by a renowned philosopher father (Stephen Dillane) in 18th-century London, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) is a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world when she meets the dashing and brilliant poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth). So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy that will transform Mary and fuel the writing of her Gothic masterwork. Imbued with the imaginative spirit of its heroine, Mary Shelley brings to life the world of a trailblazing woman who defied convention and channeled her innermost demons into a legend for the ages. The other characters who play a major role in this story include Dr John Polidori (Ben Hardy), Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge), Mary's sister Claire (Bel Powley), Percy's wife Harriet (Clara Charteris), and publisher Thomas Hogg (Jack Hickey)Though the story appears pushed into darkness a bit too often it does indeed create an atmosphere conducive to the genesis of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN and the story is an important one on many levels. A very well done period piece.

I always make the time to read IMDB's user reviews before I waste my time on a movie. For some reason I decided not to on this evening, as I was eternally bored with my own existence. The experience of watching Mary Shelley has made me reconsider my tactic of choosing movies based on user reviews, as we all have such diverse taste in an artists work, we should not let the audiences opinions hold too much merit over our own taste. I enjoyed the movie from start to end, and the actors did a wonderful job at the portrayal of their characters. I have taken the time to dive to deep into Mary Shelley's life story, so I do not know how true this story is to her life, but the movie did manage to keep my attention for just over two hours and entertained me over the course of that time. I must say this movie managed to spark a deep interest in me for the young author of Frankenstein, and I shall now proceed to do more research on the infamous Mary Shelley.