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Sick Product of a Sick System

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

hyped garbage

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A housemaid (Julia Roberts) falls in love with Dr. Jekyll (John Malkovich) and his darkly mysterious counterpart, Mr. Hyde (John Malkovich).Stephen Frears, an excellent director, cast two very big names and put them in a twist of the Jekyll and Hyde story. This is not a horror tale, and the violence and gore are kept to a minimum. In some sense it is a love story, but only in the most general of terms. More accurately, it is a woman who is loyal to her employer.The strangest thing about this is how little they tried to make the two halves look different. When Hyde comes out, he is still obviously Malkovich. How can they not notice? Someone remarks that they bear a resemblance, but it is much more than that.

An pretty but shy, depressed and lonely housemaid by the name of Mary Reilly (Oscar-Winner:Julia Roberts) works for Dr. Henry Jekyll (John Malkovich). When Dr. Jekyll is working on a experiment, he tells his staff (George Cole, Michael Sheen, Kathy Staff and Bronagh Gallagher) and Mary that he will have an assistant working with him. But the stuff never fully sees him and remains an mystery. But when Mary gets closer to Dr. Jekyll talking about her awful childhood to him, begin abused by her drunken mean-spirited father (Michael Gambon). Mary finds herself slowly falling in love with Dr. Jekyll but soon discovers that Dr. Jekyll has an dark side and his mysterious assistant might be related to him.Directed by Stephen Frears (The Grifters, Hero, The Hours) made an very flawed but intriguing period suspense thriller with good performances by Roberts and Malkovich. The bleak setting is nicely done by production designer:Staurt Craig (The Harry Potter Series, Chaplin, The Secret Garden) and Glenn Close has fun in her minor role as a madam. Although there was trouble during production, because Roberts and Malkovich didn't get along. The film was also over budgeted and problems with Christopher Hampton's (Atonement, The Secret Agent, Total Eclipse) script. "Mary Reilly" ended up being re-shot in the end, despite it was an reunion from the Cast and Crew of "Dangerous Liaisions" for director:Frears, screenwriter:Hampton, actors:Malkovich & Close, producer:Norma Heyman, composer:George Fenton, cinematographer:Philippe Rousselot, production designer:Craig and casting director:Juliet Taylor."Mary Reilly" does have an minor cult following, some might complain that Roberts was mis-cast but i thought she did well with his performance (Which she smiled only once in the film). One of the highlights is towards the end with Dr. Jekyll's character. Although watching the movie, it does look like at times, the movie had an troubled production. It's very flawed at times but it's Malkovich's fascinating performance keeps it together. Despite all the movie faults, it is still worth a look. Based on a novel by Valerie Martin.(*** ½/*****).

Sure the film is slow and it does not bear the usual features of a horror movie: no drumming music, no obvious blood spillage. This is what is so good about it! This is a fantasy about life, fear, social class, fascination about progress in medicine, and repressed sexuality in nineteenth century London. Therefore it is much more powerful and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Acting by John Malkovich was great, as usual, and Julia Roberts delivers here a good performance playing a character quite remote from her usual roles. Excellent choice of secondary characters, all well cast in the archetypal roles society was giving at the time: there was little escape from your destiny to remain in the social classes you were born. Imagination is a good escape to frustration.One of the best versions of Jekyll and Hyde.

For me, this was the only version that worked—of the few that I know. Very atmospheric. It also had a good notion of what it is that makes RLS's novel so interesting. So to me it's no surprise that "Reilly" was nowadays quite unsuccessful. More power to its fans!Mme Roberts' performance has here very fine qualities—qualities of restraint and self-effacing that work for the movie and also reveal in a very effective way Mme Roberts' high understanding of her art .She is very good.It also absolutely revealed to me Malkovich as the extremely fine actor that he is. There are, for me, two films that exquisitely showcase Malkovich's art—this "Jekyll", and a Tournier adaptation, made by a German director (The Ogre ,by Volker Schlöndorff). These are two movies that I enormously admire.They are strikingly achieved films,and also very good parts, and I much prefer them to Malkovich's roles in The Glass Menagerie (1987) ,Shadows and Fog (1992),Of Mice and Men (1992),Con Air (1997) ,Al Di Là Delle Nuvole (1995),Les Misérables,etc..Yet the best thing in this "Reilly" is its visionary nature and visionary sense—in the psychological sense. It has this surreal visionary gusto that I've appreciated the most. It plays like a film that sets itself up for something. I guess the famous critics couldn't reduce it to any political/_deconstructivist /academic agenda—"Reilly" is a mere vision—so it meant nothing to them! Fortunately, "Reilly" doesn't look mainstream in the Hollywoodian way—it really is of an independent, original conception. It's violent and attractive and intense and compact.The usual thesis is that Stevenson meant evil and good can cohabit in the same human individual. Yet Chesterton once rectified this and wrote: no, on the contrary, Stevenson obviously meant evil and good can't cohabit in the same person. The first will devour the second."Reilly" has some kind of a visionary life and liveliness. Also a force.