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Mary ReillyRating:
Release Date: 12 September, 2000 Retail Price: $9.95 OUR Price: $9.95 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (14 total) |
Mary Reilly Reviews
If negative stars were a rating option, I would use them
This movie had an interesting idea going for it in the beginning, but the bad acting, bad script, bad lighting, and horrible accents, killed it. I feel I lost brain cells just watching it. The only "scary" or "disturbing" part was Malkovich's face, which hardly ever changed into a believable expression. Robert's accent changed from scene to scene with upsetting regularity, which was extremely disappointing.
If the point of this movie was to show how "misunderstood" Jeckyl and Hyde may have been, it did a thoroughly awful job.
I would recommend a root canal over this movie, as it may be less painful.
Half Baked, but Partially Edible
As far as filmmaking goes, this production only deserves 2 stars. However, because its classic Jekyll & Hyde source material (with its dark Freudian roots that reach into the subject of substance abuse) and the gloomy Jack-the-Ripper-in-London time period are so universally compelling, the movie is somewhat engrossing without really being effective.
I haven't read the novel on which MARY REILLY is based, but you can see the framework is there for a striking work. As the heroine is a lowly servant in the mysterious Dr. Jekyll's home, there's an element of spying involved that heightens the tension, and the role of women in Victorian times is a rich dramatic subject in itself. (Mary has few options in life and is forever treading on thin ice. When she risks listening outside her employer's door, it's a very different situation than if you or I were doing the same today.) There are no significant female characters in Stevenson's original novella, almost as if they weren't worth writing about, and telling the story from a female viewpoint opens the door for new layers of perspective.
A huge problem is that Stephen Frears fails to sustain an atmosphere that's either realistically grisly or theatrically horrifying. For one thing, although the occasional fog bank is rolled out, the lighting seems all wrong. When Mary hears noises in the night and creeps downstairs to investigate, the stairwell is lit with warm, honeyish light as if this were a sunny morning. (I don't know if this lighting is intended to flatter the actress playing Mary or not, but its as false and distracting as the clear polish that glimmers on her nails from time to time.) This sort of choice may seem minor, yet it completely undermines any air of menace. This same insensitivity to mood arises in the costuming, which is correct in its detailing but also brand-spanking-new. (When the impoverished Mary runs a scary errand, she wears a neat, sweeping tweed coat that would be perfectly at home in a Brooks Brothers or Burbury shop window today.)
These details aside, what truly derails the film is the fact that its stars don't share any chemistry. Julia Roberts is a natural sensualist while John Malkovich is coolly cerebral, and at least here, the opposites don't attract. It's also frustrating that, for some intellectual reason that may have appealed to Mr. Malkovich more than anyone else, Jekyll and Hyde aren't made to look very different. (Hyde basically looks like Jekyll with a hangover, and in need of a haircut.) This central conceit is completely jarring, and pretty much renders the drama ridiculous.
MARY REILLY was originally to be produced with Tim Burton (who ultimately chose to do ED WOOD instead) directing Winona Ryder. In this case, the idea of what might have been is far more exciting than what we finally get.
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