"Mary Reilly" was a pretty big box office bomb when it was released to theaters. Seen almost twenty years later, the problems that it had back then are still apparent today. Actually, in many ways it is a well made movie. Director Stephen Frears does manage to capture the cold and bleak feel of London in the Victorian era. And the two headline stars, Julia Roberts and John Malkovich, do give perfectly fine performances. Unfortunately, the central story of the movie simply isn't that interesting. The movie has the promising idea of telling the very familiar Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story from an observer's point of view, but it's told in such a slow style and not terribly exciting or intriguing. (It also doesn't help that what Hyde does in his various rampages for the most part remains unclear.) As I indicated, the movie has some good features, but all the same it ends up being one case where the book is a lot better.
Review of Mary Reilly
