Customer Reviews

Mary Reilly

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

 

 

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.

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.

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!

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! [Especially the lipgloss used by Glen Close as the 'madam' with a scar instead of lips ..... nasty and memorable piece of work .... uses them like switchblades ...]

HOWEVER, considering a triple bill - this one fits snugly into the 'OTHERS' and 'FROM HELL' - with a gentle bow in the direction of 'The Innocents'.

JULIA ROBERTS shines as the maid - much maligned and mistreated - only to end up in this house of horror - emotional horror that is shown in vivid flashback [Mary's childhood], etc - our dear Charles Dickens was never this explicit about the chauvinistic society of the Victorian ear .... especially the mistreatment of women and children .... chattel?

THE TALE weaves itself around the going on of the dear Doctor and his depraved ['what literally lies beneath'] alter ego - and this rather odd somewhat sado-masochistic [perhaps ala 'Nightcomers'] evolves around Mary, The Doctor and Mr. Hyde ....

VERY CREEPY STUFF - especially the swinging gangways between the lab. and the house ... excellent art direction and costuming ... but incredibly creepy stuff .....

Similar to DANGEROUS LIASONS - this movie literally becomes darker, and darker as it progresses .... a hidden JULIA ROBERTS/JOHN MALKOVICH treasure - worth visiting!

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! [Especially the lipgloss used by Glen Close as the 'madam' with a scar instead of lips ..... nasty and memorable piece of work .... uses them like switchblades ...]

HOWEVER, considering a triple bill - this one fits snugly into the 'OTHERS' and 'FROM HELL' - with a gentle bow in the direction of 'The Innocents'.

JULIA ROBERTS shines as the maid - much maligned and mistreated - only to end up in this house of horror - emotional horror that is shown in vivid flashback [Mary's childhood], etc - our dear Charles Dickens was never this explicit about the chauvinistic society of the Victorian ear .... especially the mistreatment of women and children .... chattel?

THE TALE weaves itself around the going on of the dear Doctor and his depraved ['what literally lies beneath'] alter ego - and this rather odd somewhat sado-masochistic [perhaps ala 'Nightcomers'] evolves around Mary, The Doctor and Mr. Hyde ....

VERY CREEPY STUFF - especially the swinging gangways between the lab. and the house ... excellent art direction and costuming ... but incredibly creepy stuff .....

Similar to DANGEROUS LIASONS - this movie literally becomes darker, and darker as it progresses .... a hidden JULIA ROBERTS/JOHN MALKOVICH treasure - wprth visiting!

I recently purchased this movie on DVD. It is a remarkable film. ALL the actors are fantastic. The Julia Roberts character is so interesting; timid but not really, loyal and loving in spite of her horrific upbringing. She was "proper" but certainly was following her interest in Jekyll/Hyde to where ever it was going to take her.

It is always interesting to me when a movie is sexy without any sex!!! I absolutely swooned--and I mean SWOONED a couple of times--the relationship between Mary, Jekyll, and Hyde was steamy to me--the onscreen chemistry between Roberts and Malkovich topped it off. Sorry, I was wishing for a right-nasty shag scene or two.

I think some of the dialogue is particularly beautiful-
As far as accents: I am a stickler on this point. Married to a Brit for longer than I like to remember, I have become well-aquainted with nuances, regions, class, geographic influences, the ebb and flow of language in and out of England. And, I have always had a real interest in dialects, words, and history. I feel it is important not to jump to conclusions about what we know today and what was then. (I highly recommend THE STORY OF ENGLISH (PBS for anyone interested in this area)

I only get upset about poor accents/dialects in a film if it seems to me the actor is just lazy or uneducated about what they are doing.

I do not ever remember seeing Malkovich in any film in which he assumes a foreign dialect or accent, BUT, for some reason it always works for me. He does something with the way he speaks that seems to transcend dialect, accent, time, place--it just always seems right no matter what the piece he is working on.

I will watch this movie many, many times--just another of those great "little" movies you hear little or nothing of that sticks with you--verbally, visually beautiful! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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."

Very atmospheric and compelling film. Jeckyll & Hyde seen through the eyes of young victorian house maid Mary Reilly, Julia Roberts in a perfect role. This is the type of film that shows her acting to its best advantage, only wish we could see her in more like this. John Malcovitch was great playing the duel roles of the reserved, gentler Dr Jeckyll and the strong volatile Mr Hyde.
Wonderful to watch.

As a fan of what I have heard called gothic novels - Bronte, Dickens, etc. - I have got to put in a word for this movie. This is a phenomenal movie. The story centers around Julia Roberts' character, Mary Reilly, who is a servant of Dr. Jekyll. John Malkovich plays a wonderful Dr. Jekyll and makes Mr. Hyde into a fascinating villain. He catches the essence of Mr. Hyde perfectly in my mind...a mysterious and diabolical yet somewhat alluring presence though unstable. (In the original Stevenson story Hyde's dominant characteristic was the repugnance he pulled from people when they saw him - as if he was deformed in some way though it was not visible. It is implied that evil deforms the soul and that visible to other's by instinct). As Reilly assists Jekyll, their relationship becomes that of confidantes (though Jekyll is holding back). He develops an interest in Mary and her life. As he delves into her psyche, he forms a definite affection for her and she for him. There is a certain tension between them because of their feelings, their differing social positions and the problems that Jekyll is having but can't fully explain to the timid but reliable Mary Reilly.

This movie was so strong, it just blew me away. It is what I had hoped that Stevenson's story would be but wasn't. I have put Mary Reilly, the book, on my reading list and I fully expect it to be every bit the powerful work as Jane Eyre with the special flavor of horror to be found in the likes of Shelley's Frankenstein.

this was a different part for Julia Roberts, but I have to admit, she pulled it off!! I think she did great, this was a awsome movie. Dark, gothic, romantic, and all-around good movie. It was very entertaining. I highly enjoyed it, its a different kind of Dr.Jekel and Mr. Hyde movie, but a good one!!!