Rating: 
Summary: Be nice, she's not that bad!
Review: I have to disagree with the critique of Ms. Robert's acting. It's been criticized before as "blah," wooden or uninspired. Perhaps because next to John Malcovich's gloriously over-the-top scene chewing Mr. Hyde she seems a little pale. Or maybe it's because Mary Reilly is such a break in roles for her. She isn't perky and cute like in "Pretty Woman" or assertively sexual as in "Erin Brokovich." But, then she's playing a Victorian housemaid. A big-eyed, sad little drudge with an abused past, desperately and unwillingly in love with a man above her station. When she is around her employer Dr. Jekyll, she is utterly controlled by social convention. When she is near his alterego Mr. Hyde, she's petrified with fear. And for good reason. I would call her acting understated and subtly nuanced. Ms. Roberts communicates a lot with a glance, a silence or just a stirring of hands. She's the counterpoint to the uninhibited Mr. Hyde. And she keeps the film from descending into farce, which it very well could have.
Rating:
Summary: A different and more subtle take on the classic story
Review: During preparations for the 1941 Spencer Tracy version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" there was talk of having one actress play both the good girl and the bad girl in the story. That idea was abandoned, and the roles went respectively to Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman. The idea of matching the duality of the title character with a single woman also playing two roles would provide an interesting sub-text to the familiar Robert Louis Stevenson story. In the 1996 film "Mary Reilly," based on the novel by Valerie Martin, takes this idea to the next level, providing a single woman who knows both the good doctor and the evil creature into whom he is transformed. She is drawn towards one, repelled by the other, and both terrified and confused by the realization the two are one in the same.Iconically Julia Roberts has always been one of the greatest smiles in the history of Hollywood and (usually) ringlets of curly hair. But as Mary Reilly the hair is mostly hidden, the smile never appears, and her tan is replaced by a pasty complexion, all appropriate to her chambermaid character. The result is that this performance is done mainly with her eyes. Some will get caught up in the quality of her Irish accent, but it is really her tone that matters much more to the performance. Mary's own back story offers reasons for both Jekyll and Hyde to be interested in her and in turn for her to have some insight in what is going on. John Malkovich is an interesting choice to play Jekyll and Hyde since we are talking about the acknowledged master of subtle intensity among modern American actors. The difference between his Jekyll and Hyde is the smallest in cinematic history, and more in keeping with the gothic sensibilities of the original novella. Of course, Hollywood was always enraptured with the idea of the transformation of the brilliant man of science into an amoral monster, which is acknowledged in the use of CGI to effect the one transformation that we see. Surprisingly, this is not the scene in which Mary learns the truth of her employer's deep dark secret. The key is that Hyde might be a monster, but he is not a grotesque. The evil is much more suggested than experienced this time around. "Mary Reilly" is much more of a Gothic melodrama than it is a Gothic horror story (the original text can be read either way). Because she is the one soul who knows both Jekyll and Hyde (other members of the household have meet Hyde, but we never see him with any of them), she in a unique position to be truly sympathetic to his plight. The assumption is that you are familiar with the story and that you know what Jekyll is trying to accomplish in his personal laboratory and what villainy Hyde is up to in the fog shrouded night. Where the film is flawed is in eliminating Jekyll's love interests from the original story, which allows the doctor to be attracted to Mary. I would contend this was not necessary: the idea that Hyde would act where Jekyll would not is central to the story and Mary would have feelings for the kind and considerate doctor either way. Directed by Stephen Frears this film runs a couple of minutes short of two hours. With the "action" (i.e., Hyde's attacks) reduced to quick shots, flashbacks and bloody aftermaths, the slow pace makes the film drag at times. We could probably do without so many of the shots of Mary walking through the fog or the mansion. The basic idea of offering a new perspective on the classic story is certainly welcome, but I think they could have come up with something slightly more ambitious. Not that I expect you would reach the heights of the ultimate such tale, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," but you could certainly come up with something more memorable.
Rating:
Summary: The Battle between Good & Evil has Many Victims& One Witness
Review: Rat's teeth tearing at the innocent flesh of a 12 year old girl. Unheard screams, echoing from the tiny closet. This is the punishment administered by an evil father when his sex toy daughter, Mary, allowed a cup to shatter on the dirty floor of the father's sin infected lair.
Mary's servant mother protected her daughter by placing her in the impersonal world of service where Mary continued to be a thing to be managed. She was the least significant member of an impersonal housekeeping staff consisting of the butler (Mr. Pool), the cook (Mrs. Kent), and two additional servants (Bradshaw and Annie) whose primary concerns were class and station.
Only her employer, Dr. Jekyll, treated Mary as if she were a person, rather than a thing to be used or manipulated. Yet, Jekyll's strange interest in Mary's scars caused him to learn of the emotional and physical abuse inflicted by her father. "It was like he carried another person inside of him and the drinking brought him out," Mary said, trying to find an excuse for her father's cruelty. "Or maybe set him free," added the doctor, who was taking an increasingly keen interest in Mary's past and in the violent and uncontrollable side of human's nature. He also asked if her father had abused her sexually. Slowly, Mary began to open up to Dr. Jekyll and the two became close. However, Mary soon discovered strange secrets about the doctor, including nightly outings to the laboratory and visits to a seedy bordello run by a vicious madam called Mrs. Farraday.
One day, Dr. Jekyll announced to his housekeeping staff that his new colleague, Edward Hyde, might be dropping by unexpectedly, from time to time, and told them not to be alarmed by his presence. Mary was soon fascinated by Jekyll's assistant, for he was younger and stronger than Jekyll, though he carried an air of danger with him all the time. Mary was fascinated but also frightened by her new employer, while the doctor seemed to take a personal interest in her that went far beyond mere professional courtesy (much to the annoyance of Mr. Poole, Jekyll's servant). Mary did not realize at first that Mr. Hyde was the darker side of Jekyll's personality.
Jekyll wanted Mary to get closer to him and gave her errands and clues to make her discover what was going on inside of him. He sent Mary with a message to Mrs. Farraday at the brothel, thus making her aware of his sexual needs and demands. Her second errand to the brothel led her to find the carnage of a murdered whore, including blood on the ceiling and a disemboweled rat, and Mary began to sense the relationship between her story and this evil rage. Hyde told Mary about the doctor's desire to touch her and fondle her breasts and his inability to do so, as well as the anger this caused. Still, Mary did not understand that Hyde was expressing that anger by perpetrating brutal killings. Despite Mary's close collaboration with Dr. Jekyll and her fascination with his charming "assistant" Hyde, she was unable to realize the true nature of their relationship until Dr. Jekyll revealed his secret to Mary and admitted: "I had a fracture in my soul. It seems that this [fracture] has caused me to have a taste for oblivion."
Dr. Jekyll revealed that he depended on a 'cure' to turns him back from his evil side to his good side and sent his servant, Mr. Poole, to the chemist to ask for the formula and the ingredients of that cure. Unfortunately, the lab had been destroyed and there was no formula and no ingredients. Dr. Jekyll began to realize that if he was left without the cure for this uncontrollable evilness, there would be more bloodshed, and more killings, for his evil side would prevail. The Doctor decided to hide himself in his laboratory away from the police who were chasing him for his committed crimes. Mary packed her things and decided to move away, but her steps moved her towards the lab, where the doctor was hiding. When Hyde saw her, he was excited and full of anger and that anger was threatening Mary's life. At this point, he decided to put an end to this long battle between his good and evil sides. Hyde mixed poison with the last dose of 'cure' thus allowing the doctor one last moment with Mary.
Rating: 
Summary: She Wrecks Another One
Review: I'm not a Julia Roberts fan.
But I was willing to give her (another) chance with this story because I loved the novel so much. And the idea of seeing John Malkovich play both Jekyll and Hyde even had me excited to rush out and see this movie its opening day.
Duped again. The novel was great: it's the Jekyll & Hyde story told from a maid's point of view. It's faithful to the smallest detail to Robert Louis Stevenson's telling, but you're seeing it from the next room (the best way to read them is to read the original story first, then MARY REILLY).
But I should have known that "America's Sweetheart" would toss every nuance of integrity to make herself the center of the show: while the novel's tension focused on Mary's fear for the kind doctor who is obviously being blackmailed by Hyde, the movie has both Jekyll and Hyde falling madly in love with Julia.
A uni-brow maid who can't keep her Irish accent straight.
Right. I wanted so much to like this movie.
Please do it again.
And leave Julia free to do NOTTING HILL II....
Rating: 
Summary: Good and Bad Chills!
Review: The movie is slightly slow to most though I was utterly unable to pull my eyes away. From the moment it begins, your heart begins to pump a little faster and the eel gets you creeped from the second the first few moments unrole. Small underplays of sexual tension and Mary "opening" up to the doctor in allowing him to look and and touch a few of her scars from childhood. Scars, of which, her father had given her by locking her into a closet with a rat. A very disturbing relationship given with very few scenes between she and her father show how deliberatly, and beautifuly, this movie gives you feelings and emotions. You hardly had to hear her mention a word of her father or even looking at her with him and you knew how awful it was once when she was younger (thank god that they didn't show most of that...)
The dark footsteps and fog always shown with the thoughts and movements off "the good doctor" and his "assistant" give such an eerie feel that when the moments come when they are together and he chooses to chancely touch Mary's cheek the chills given to the viewer are indiscernable. It is hard to know through the whole thing if your racing heart is out of fear or longing. And your flushed cheeks out of good or bad excitment for the unbelievable little amount of actual sexual content in this film it almost leaves you feeling unsatisfied in that area!
I cannot finish this unless I at least shortly speak of the masterfull amount of acting on Glenn Close's and John Malkovich's parts, utterly riveting with their roles! I have always liked John Malkovich but he has compeltely outdone himself! I am in love with him as an actor and cannot wait to see him in his next film! And though I do agree with a few that Julia Roberts probably could have either forgotten her accent completely or made a bigger effort - it is forgivable! Her performance is lovely! Clearly the director's many close ups on her and John's faces were in a direct attempt to add more "creep" to the picture. He managed it! A very creepy and riveting thriller with no need for any gore or sex (though it would have been nice for a bigger scene of that! We don't even know if it happened! Did it?) I highly recomend it for those people who are not interested in such films as the utterly ridiulous The Rock and/or The Animal (though at least that was humorous...)
Rating:
Summary: An awful movie
Review: This was a truly awful movie, which I plan to sell after my one viewing. Julia Roberts' on-again, off-again Irish accent is terrible. The rest of the movie is slow and disgusting.
Rating:
Summary: Murder in the shadows and fog
Review: This is one creepy film! It's intoxicating in it's slow pace, beautiful images and complex relationships. I'd classisfy it as a horror/love sorty. But it's not the kind of horror that revels in gallons of blood an decapitated corpses like Bram Stoker's Dracula. The gore is kept to a minimum, but when it does appear, it's highly affective. There's a lot of suspense in the relationships between Mary and the other servants, Jekel and Hyde. The colors are crisp and vibrant, while blacks are very dark. There is a lot of fog and shadow in the film, yet those subtlities are captured beautifully here as well. Only the widescreen version is available here and thankfully, it's anamorphic. There are few extras included which is a shame, becasue a commentary and/or an in dpeth making of documentary would've been very insightful. If you like composed, suspense-filled drama with a dark horror edge, you'll really enjoy Mary Reily. Julia Roberts and Mackovich give very solid preformances that immediately draw you into the story. Terrific film for a dark stormy night.
Rating:
Summary: Nightmares of Fog and Murder
Review: The movie rolls in and out with fog for a reason. You may argue that you didn't like Julia Roberts so-so Irish accent or that the movie was too slow but if you can't see the method behind the madness of this film let me enlighten you. The whole movie drifts as a nightmare of fog. The slow part is due to this floating horrible sense of dread that drifts you through these mysterious places that would tend to seem normal but aren't for some unexplainable reason. It's clear that the bounds of reality and dream seem to mingle throughout this movie, and in most part is very disturbing because of this almost expressionist like effect. But this effect works together with the music to achieve this feeling of lurking fear. In one scene that really scared me, a normal act by the workers of an eel being skinned later turns into a horrible dream by Mary of the dead thing rising and staring at her. The film goes even further than the normal Jekyll and Hyde duality theme, showing that there is duality in almost everything. The day and the night, consciousness and dream, human and beast, love and lust, and for the most part starts to blend the ideas into the normal course of a servant's everyday life. Although Jekyll and Hyde are a good and evil influence on the film they are not shown as much because it's dreamscape is through that of Mary. So it shows him not as the tortured victim of a supernatural will battle that he saw himself as but as a mysterious, psychotic, nightmare being that fleshes itself out throughout the film as a real person. In fact the whole movie becomes more real as it progresses. The movie is a very good example of psychological, dream-like terror that is often disturbing and one of the better versions of the Jekyll and Hyde story, only bested by the silent John Barrymore version.
Rating:
Summary: Grossly underrated, brilliant film!
Review: Mary Reilly is one of my favorite movies. It has to be one of the most disturbing films ever made, but the underlying messages that you perceive can be almost self revealing. The bizarre sensuality of both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, portrayed most believingly by John Malkovich(who, despite his age is very HOT!), is one of the most difficult, yet easy characters to understand. If you allow yourself to get lost in the film and not think of anything but, you feel as if you are there with Mary, who is portrayed by Julia Roberts. I honestly must say that I have seen many of Julia's films, but I have never liked and appreciated any of her roles as much as Mary Reilly. She is so uncharacteristically morose that you almost feel as if she is not the Julia from Erin Brockovich, but a Julia that is hidden inside and that may never be seen again. The entire movie is a metaphor in my eyes, for the freedom that every human longs for. To not care what anyone thinks, to be as reckless as possible with no consequences. This is a brilliant film and I recommend it to anyone who likes to get lost in another, more frightening and unreal world. More dangerous and just plain passionate than anything that is truly possible. The chemistry between Roberts and Malkovich, as one and at the same time, two characters, is one of those that makes me shout in my head, "You should be together!" The ending is one of the most powerful I have ever seen. People that say that this is a boring movie have a right to , this is not for everyone. You have to be very open to anything when you wantch the movie. But, if you are thinking that this sounds intriguing, you will not be disappointed. As long as you keep an open mind that anything is possible in this movie, you will love it.
Rating:
Summary: DOnÂ't care about Julia
Review: I donÂ't care about JuliaÂ's acting being good or bad in this one. All that I care is that this movie stincks. ItÂ's bad directed, bad screenplayed, the actors are uninspired.
|
