John Malkovich was the perfect actor to play/ jekyll hyde- he personfies the good and evil that can coexist in a person. I was very impressed that Julie Roberts had the demeanor of a household servant down so well. My husbands' family comes from a line of women who were domestics when they first came to America in the 1880's-- and his mother said that's how they had to act. Even though it was a little slow- I liked the way the story developed. The fact that Mary can't hate her abusive father because she came from him- helps the doctor understand the dilemna. Altogether a satisfying movie that takes a different view of the Stevenson classic.

This dull reworking of the Jekyll and Hyde story reposits the whole thing as a doomed Gothic romance, with mousy maid Julia Roberts working in the household of John Malkovich and gradually coming to realise that all isn't well with her employer. MARY REILLY suffers hugely from the random feminist slant on the story, which substitutes meek romance for the original story's full-blooded horror, rendering it into a weak and unwieldy production.

I suspect that most viewers like myself will have a hard time with Roberts's attempts at an Irish accent. It's one of the worst accents to come from Hollywood, up there with Kevin Costner's attempts at an English accent in ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES; embarrassing, in fact. At least Malkovich has the good sense to not even attempt to do one, although his hammy overacting is off-putting in itself. The film does contain one surprise CGI effect, which looks appallingly dated to the modern viewer.

As a film, MARY REILLY is slow, unfocused, and hampered by the viewer's knowledge of the story which means there are no surprises in store. The characters are poorly written and Reilly herself is unsympathetic - no Jane Eyre here, with hidden reserves of wit and courage, just somebody who doesn't even deserve the camera time. The one good thing about this film is that it features roles for British character actors like George Cole, Ciaran Hinds, Kathy Staff, and Michael Gambon. If I'm honest I would have preferred the film with Cole in the Jekyll role and Staff as the lead, they show up the Hollywood stars that much.