Mary Reilly: Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, George Cole, Michael Gambon, Kathy Staff, Glenn Close, Michael Sheen, Bronagh Gallagher, Linda Bassett, Henry Goodman, Ciar�n Hinds, Sasha Hanau, Stephen Frears, Iain Smith, Lynn Pleshette, Nancy Graham Tanen, Ned Tanen, Norma Heyman, Christopher Hampton, Valerie Martin: Amazon.ca: Video

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Amazon.com Essential Video

Stephen Frears reunites with the production talents who made the tempting Dangerous Liaisons for this new look at the infamous Dr. Jekyll (a deft John Malkovich). Instead of being in the laboratory where the good doctor unlocks his evil twin, we stay in the mansion overlooking the lab. An inquisitive, proper maid, Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts) slowly becomes Dr. Jekyll's confidant. Rather than a horror story, the film is a spooky mystery that keeps us in the dark, and what a wonderful dark Frears and his designers have fashioned. Roberts carries the movie, digging deep for her best dramatic work to date. Though some may wish she'd show more passion, she holds her emotions appropriately in check. The movie faced considerable, well-documented troubles, including the reshooting of several scenes months after the initial production. This probably affected the finale, which has little impact and nearly ruins a good thing. --Doug Thomas

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Customer Reviews

45 Reviews

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)

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1.0 out of 5 stars i may be in the minority with my opinion, Oct 24 2007

By

falcon "disdressed12" (canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Reilly (DVD)

i admit,it has been awhile since i've seen this movie.however,i still
believe i can write an informed review on it.the reason is simple-Julia
Roberts.Julia Plays the title role,a housekeeper for Dr.Henry
Jekyl.John Malkovich plays Dr.Jekyll.of course where Dr.Jekyll is
Mr.Hyde(his alter ego) is never far behind.John Malkovich is very good
as Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.Julia Roberts,on the other hand feels miscast
in the tile role.but it's not her acting that's a problem.it's the fact
that she seems to slip in and out of the Irish accent fairly frequently
during the course of the movie.this was so distracting,it took away any
positives from the film.i also felt at the time that Roberts did not
have the depth required for the role.if it wasn't for those two
issues,Mary Reilly could have been a very good movie.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Film!, Jun 20 2004

By

Octavia Holland "Bookworm" (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Reilly (DVD)

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.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing..., Jun 8 2004

By

D. J. Zabriskie "zabdart" (Park Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mary Reilly (DVD)

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!

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Most recent customer reviews

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Published on May 22 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars HEARTILY DAAAAAARK!
ONE of the BLEAKEST films ever made about this subject - practically in black and white [nice touch] hi-lighting the splashes of vermillion - and bright red blood! Read more

Published on May 22 2004