I keep coming across this film, and every time am surprised by how good it is, and how rich are its characterizations. The film begins with a lovely metaphor -- Mary's warm hands bringing a stunned eel back to life (an eel that is then mercilessly chopped up and served for breakfast), and this metaphor is a wonderful analogy for Mary's effect on the doomed Dr. Jekyll. She brings him back to life, but only after a terrible decision has already been made. It's too late.
I especially loved several aspects to this film -- not just the performances, but the literate and subtle script by Hampton, that really gives a sense of the war for good and evil within all the lead characters -- especially illuminating both sides of the coin that is Mary herself (because the film has no easy answers), and that she truly fears and loves equally -- as does Dr. Jekyll himself.
The film shows compassion toward both lead characters as the subtle victims of early abuse -- but where Jekyll seeks to become "the knife as well as the blade," Mary's situation is both simpler and more complex. She doesn't seek retribution but instead finds a kind of fascination in herself with the undeniably attractive Hyde, who apologizes to no one, who neatly sidesteps the Victorian niceties of the times. She may want to screw Hyde, but she loves Jekyll. In some ways, it's the perfect match -- even if it is an impossible threesome.
The performances are lovely -- Roberts' accent is uneven (she did a much more authentic brogue in "Michael Collins"), but she is really striking visually, has never been more beautiful, and makes some very brave choices as an actress nonetheless, so the accent inconsistencies didn't bother me too much. Malkovich is wonderful and equally subtle (even if Hyde does seem to simply be channeling his Vicomte from "Dangerous Liaisons). The script by Hampton is literate and sometimes troubling (there are no easy Freudian answers here), and the direction is gorgeous, as is the cinematography -- Roberts and Malkovich seem to emerge as pale haunted visages in the darkness.
Overall, flaws and all, I'd recommend this film as worth a second look.
I especially loved several aspects to this film -- not just the performances, but the literate and subtle script by Hampton, that really gives a sense of the war for good and evil within all the lead characters -- especially illuminating both sides of the coin that is Mary herself (because the film has no easy answers), and that she truly fears and loves equally -- as does Dr. Jekyll himself.
The film shows compassion toward both lead characters as the subtle victims of early abuse -- but where Jekyll seeks to become "the knife as well as the blade," Mary's situation is both simpler and more complex. She doesn't seek retribution but instead finds a kind of fascination in herself with the undeniably attractive Hyde, who apologizes to no one, who neatly sidesteps the Victorian niceties of the times. She may want to screw Hyde, but she loves Jekyll. In some ways, it's the perfect match -- even if it is an impossible threesome.
The performances are lovely -- Roberts' accent is uneven (she did a much more authentic brogue in "Michael Collins"), but she is really striking visually, has never been more beautiful, and makes some very brave choices as an actress nonetheless, so the accent inconsistencies didn't bother me too much. Malkovich is wonderful and equally subtle (even if Hyde does seem to simply be channeling his Vicomte from "Dangerous Liaisons). The script by Hampton is literate and sometimes troubling (there are no easy Freudian answers here), and the direction is gorgeous, as is the cinematography -- Roberts and Malkovich seem to emerge as pale haunted visages in the darkness.
Overall, flaws and all, I'd recommend this film as worth a second look.