Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: This movie should have been a LOT better than it turned out to be! One can imagine the meeting at the producer's office at which it was pitched: "OK! We're going to retell the story of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... only from the point of view of Dr. Jeckyll's maid, Mary Reilly! Let's get Julia Roberts in the title role and John Malkovich to play Jekyll and Hyde!" Sounds like a winner, no?No! One is never quite sure who is to blame for all the missed opportunities here; whether the studio wanted to make one film and the director another, or whether director Stephen Frears just made bad choices, but this movie never quite jells. Indecision seems to plague it at almost every turn. When it should be scarey, it settles for being merely creepy. When it should be creepy, it is merely weird. When it should be suspenseful, it goes conventional.
Julia Roberts seems more constrained in this picture than Winnona Rider and Sadie Frost do in their corsets in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." She stays in her "wounded bird" persona throughout the entire film. The trouble is we are given no preamble to explain why should be that way, and no development to explain why she should stay that way.
John Malkovich, ever the unconventional actor, makes an astounding choice with his character, choosing to play Dr. Jekyll
not as the obsessed mad scientist we're so familiar with, but as a doomed Byronic romantic. His Mr. Hyde is just the flip side of that doomed romanticism, blatently sexual, full of spontaneous, unrestrained libido. It's a brilliant choice. If
Frears had picked up this cue and run with it, we would have had an interesting film about the "fallen angel syndrome" which has been the bane of the dating scene for the last 50 years. Some of the single women in the audience might have actually stopped asking: "Where are all the good men?" long enough to ask themselves: "Why am I always so attracted to bad boys?" Alas! Hollywood today is either incapable or unwilling to make a movie that asks its audience to think!
So, instead we get a film which can never make up its mind whether it wants to be a horror movie, a "doomed love" story or a "Julia Roberts vehicle." By trying to be all three at once, it fails to be any of the above.
How disappointing!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Film!
Review: I don't really understand what everyone is talking about when referring to Ms. Robert's performance. I thought it was exceptional. It was nice to see her stretch. Anyway Malkovich was fantastic! This story was great and I thought it was well executed on film. Close had an interesting role also and I loved hearing her accent. See this one.
Rating: 
Summary: "He came out of the dark like he was made of it."
Review: In the great tradition of Gothic horror films, Mary Reilly updates the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The screenplay by Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Valerie Martin, changes the focus from the bizarre transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, his evil alterego, and creates instead a tension-filled relationship between the dark and "misunderstood" Dr. Jekyll and his young and proper housemaid, Mary Reilly. Despite (or perhaps because of) the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her father, Mary does not run from Dr. Jekyll, though she always seems fearful. He confides in her about his research and gives her a sense of value which she does not receive from any other source.
Julia Roberts as the very repressed Mary, plays most of the film through her expressive eyes, which reveal her fear and her moods. Little dialogue is necessary, as John Malkevich, as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sneers, threatens, and dissembles, while also conveying a vulnerability to which Mary Reilly responds. The cast of other house servants is outstanding, but Glenn Close as the off-the-wall madam Mrs. Farraday, steals the show, playing the role in her nastiest Cruella DeVille mode. The Victorian setting is beautifully conveyed, from the claustrophic interiors of the bawdy house to the stark black and white interior of Jekyll's laboratory, and the costuming reflects the same color palette.
The cinematography takes advantage of architectural components, filming from above catwalks in Dr. Hyde's laboratory, through windows, around doorways and halls, and from under tables. Additional scenes of dark, foggy weather are used to great advantage as a contrast to the brightness and butchery in the markets, hospital autopsy rooms, and Mrs. Farraday's accommodations.
The psychological portrait of Dr. Jekyll and his "evil twin," Mr. Hyde have been discussed for over a hundred years, and this film does not add anything new to that portrait. The inclusion of Mary Reilly, however, is a new twist, one which might have been more believable if her own psychological motivation for remaining in Dr. Jekyll's household had been more fully developed. The special effects as Dr. Jekyll wrestles with his inner demon are compelling and unique, but the ending just peters out, offering no emotional resolution or intellectual conclusion regarding Mary Reilly. Great fun for fans of Gothic horror. Mary Whipple
Rating:
Summary: dark atmosphere in this chilling little story
Review: This movie is so, so creepy and gothic and weird, without being too bloody or too gratuitous. It's silently creepy and disturbing, that's its power.
I didn't buy the Jekyll and Hyde being two different guys because anybody with half a mind can see its Malkovich in both roles, so I find it hard to believe that Mary Reilly and others wouldn't recognize that, they should have disguised him better, not just different hair color.
Other than that, everything in the film works great. Malkovich is superb as always in his subdued sophisticated decadent villain acting mode, and Julia Roberts really shows her range as an actress, playing this timid mousy little maid with a sad past.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I absolutely loooove this movie! Julia Roberts' BEST performance is right here folks! And John Malkovich just makes it so insanely amazing! Trust me when I say that if you liked From Hell or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you will LOVE this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Film!
Review: I don't really understand what everyone is talking about when referring to Ms. Robert's performance. I thought it was exceptional. It was nice to see her stretch. Anyway Malkovich was fantastic! This story was great and I thought it was well executed on film. Close had an interesting role also and I loved hearing her accent. See this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: This movie should have been a LOT better than it turned out to be! One can imagine the meeting at the producer's office at which it was pitched: "OK! We're going to retell the story of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... only from the point of view of Dr. Jeckyll's maid, Mary Reilly! Let's get Julia Roberts in the title role and John Malkovich to play Jekyll and Hyde!" Sounds like a winner, no? No! One is never quite sure who is to blame for all the missed opportunities here; whether the studio wanted to make one film and the director another, or whether director Stephen Frears just made bad choices, but this movie never quite jells. Indecision seems to plague it at almost every turn. When it should be scarey, it settles for being merely creepy. When it should be creepy, it is merely weird. When it should be suspenseful, it goes conventional.
Julia Roberts seems more constrained in this picture than Winnona Rider and Sadie Frost do in their corsets in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." She stays in her "wounded bird" persona throughout the entire film. The trouble is we are given no preamble to explain why should be that way, and no development to explain why she should stay that way.
John Malkovich, ever the unconventional actor, makes an astounding choice with his character, choosing to play Dr. Jekyll
not as the obsessed mad scientist we're so familiar with, but as a doomed Byronic romantic. His Mr. Hyde is just the flip side of that doomed romanticism, blatently sexual, full of spontaneous, unrestrained libido. It's a brilliant choice. If
Frears had picked up this cue and run with it, we would have had an interesting film about the "fallen angel syndrome" which has been the bane of the dating scene for the last 50 years. Some of the single women in the audience might have actually stopped asking: "Where are all the good men?" long enough to ask themselves: "Why am I always so attracted to bad boys?" Alas! Hollywood today is either incapable or unwilling to make a movie that asks its audience to think!
So, instead we get a film which can never make up its mind whether it wants to be a horror movie, a "doomed love" story or a "Julia Roberts vehicle." By trying to be all three at once, it fails to be any of the above.
How disappointing!
Rating:
Summary: HEARTILY DAAAAAARK!
Review: This is the 10th time that i just finished watching the movie! I cant help it but watching again and again!you can see that this is a passionate, romantic, horror ,gothic, psychological movie. The first time you watch it you just undrestand whats happening at the end of it( and you feel the horror deeply! ) .But the second time you see a great story and how it was leading you at the first place but you couldnt see whats happening . You can deeply feel Julia's pain , passion and fright. Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts ) and her Employer they both has fractures in their souls and they start to get closer to each other when they begin to know more about each other."As Mary Reilly interprets it, this is not a classic conflict between good and evil -- life isn't that simple. Hyde does not represent the distillation of pure evil, just as Jekyll is not a paragon of righteousness. Each has virtues and flaws, and only together do they represent a whole person. Hyde is raw emotion -- the animal side of humanity. His passion, twisted though it may be, gives Jekyll the will to live. Through the dichotomy presented by these two characters, we are challenged to consider that perhaps it's the combination of good and evil, control and liberation, and restraint and passion that makes each of us who we are. Mary Reilly has the power to disturb because it forces us to look inside and recognize our own Jekylls and Hydes.
By using Mary as the main character, this film is also able to illustrate the transforming power of love. To be sure, Mary Reilly isn't a conventional romance, but it's a love story nevertheless. Mary loves Jekyll for his goodness, and Hyde for what she sees of herself mirrored in him. When Jekyll speaks of having a fractured soul, Mary understands his pain. Her own spirit has been crippled by her childhood torture at the hands of an abusive father (Michael Gambon). Moreover, Hyde's feelings for Mary prove to be his undoing. In the end, her gift to him is indescribably precious.
Mary Reilly triumphs because of superlative character interaction. John Malkovich, who has played just about every kind of role in his varied career, brings a different slant to his Jekyll/Hyde portrayal. His Jekyll is a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions; his Hyde is less a monster than a misanthrope. Meanwhile, opposite Malkovich, Julia Roberts graces the screen with a tender, beautifully understated performance that dwarfs anything she has previously done. Mary is both strong and vulnerable, and Roberts, looking convincingly frumpy and uncertain, creates a poignant, tormented character. Her work here is truly eye-opening.
I suspect that many who see Mary Reilly will get a completely different movie than they're expecting. Instead of murder and mayhem (although both of these are evident), we are presented with a beautifully-textured motion picture tapestry that focuses on characters and themes rather than gory special effects. Mary Reilly is haunting, not only because of its foggy, shadowy settings, but because of the questions it encourages us to ask about ourselves and others."
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