Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts) is the lowly chambermaid in the home of Dr. Henry Jekyll (John Malkovich). She is one of several servants and he is alone. He is experimenting in his lab and claims to have made a breakthrough to Mary. He announces a new visitor Edward Hyde is coming. He develops a closer relationship with Mary over the objections of the butler Mr. Poole. She reveals her abused past. He sends her to deliver a letter in secret to whorehouse madam Mrs. Farraday (Glenn Close) who agrees to rent a room to Mr. Hyde.It's all gray, dull, and flat. There is no tension and no thrills. There is definitely no mystery as the story unfolds inevitably. This is very boring. This has an old fashion Gothic horror style. The movie keeps going and going with the same flat unrelenting tone. Roberts is doing a lot of deer-in-the-headlights acting which only adds to the dull, flat feel.

I initially came across this film when I found out it was at one stage planned to be a Winona Ryder/Tim Burton vehicle, and I have to sat I was so impressed by it that it is now one of my favorite films.With a bit of research I got the idea that this was a bad stage in Julias career, but I have to say I have never seen her better than she is in this. Her performance is just astounding, she has thus innocence and vulnerability that I never thought I'd see coming from her, she embodies the character extremely well, so well that it would have been a crime to see anyone else in the role. John Malkovich ramps up the creepy factor in this movie, his performance is also just stellar, he is truly terrifying in the scenes where he is Jekyll.Another thing I like is that this is such a great retelling of the Jekyll/ Hyde story, it's the best one I've ever seen, I think one big advantage it has is that its told from an onlookers perspective and not from an unknown or first person perspective.The cinematography is wonderful, the constant shade of grey and the overlying layer of fog both help to create the dark and moody atmosphere. I think it's definitely a movie fans of the story would enjoy and also people who aren't so familiar with it.Top notch Gothic horror that deserves to be seen....

I believe it was Ray Pride who wrote the classic line "Mary Reilly is like a painting... only slower." Yeah, the pacing is not good. Yeah, Julia Roberts is a slight problem. But there are three more massive problems with the movie.1) Viewpoint - Telling the story of Hamlet through the eyes of Rosencranz and Gildenstern? Sounds promising! Telling the story of Oz through the eyes of the Wicked Witch? Could be interesting! Telling the story of Dr Jekyll (y'know? ...the exciting character!!) through an extremely uninteresting servant too timid to have a viewpoint? Um, no. No very much. No times a hundred. This device holds no potential.2) Malkovich - Characters in the movie are supposed to believe Malkovich is two people. But this guy can't be bothered to develop one role in a normal movie, let alone two characters here; horrible, horrible piece of casting! He gives the same contemptuous, bland, disinterested, passive-aggressive performance he's been overpaid for, for twenty years. He fails to modulate anything an actor has under his control, generating tedium on screen, and ennui in viewers.3) Familiarity - We know this story. If you haven't found a way to embroider it, you can't just prolong its only revelation (duality) for an hour and a half. Because it makes the characters seem severely dull-witted. No one has two identical-looking antagonists in their life who are never seen at the same time. Every moment is the same as the next.There's a belated spfx ending which is wildly out of place, and feels like the 25th attempt to save a movie. The combined talents of the three (Roberts, Malkovich & Frears) did not produce sparks, excitement or even a feeble puff of smoke.

I was surprised to see Julia Roberts in what looked to be such a dark film but she played her role so well I really did feel like I was feeling everything she felt. John Malkovich as always played both Jekyll and Hyde with the passion and intensity that i have come to expect from him.I'm not much for period dramas but I have to admit that it was done so brilliantly and didn't feel stuffy and controlled like a lot of other period films I have tried watching. The story of Jekyll and Hide and it has been done in other films but this is one of the best I have seen. The film had a lot more feeling to it but was very subtle and made me think a lot of things through. The film has a slow pace compared to some but this isn't such a bad thing, it definitely didn't feel drawn out, it seemed to have enough time to venture down all the paths it needed including the death of Mary's mother.The film is classed partly as horror but the only part of the film which was scary to see was the scene where Mary witnesses Hde become Jekyll for the first and last time. The special effects were a little out there compared to the rest of the film, it was almost like someone put a microwave in Dr Jekyll's Victorian kitchen. It would have been better to see there faces gently merge from one character to the other.Other than that all I have to say is this is a brilliant film. Totally unexpected and charming in lots of ways.