The Jekyll and Hyde myth rises from the ashes in Mary Reilly, this flamboyant but unloved film starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich, directed by Stephen Frears.
Of all the monster factories in cinema, Hammer remains to this day the most worthy and productive (and no, Blumhouse is definitely not playing in the same league). The finest examples of gothic fantasy have been celebrated there, and it was not until the end of the last century that they were resurrected this time across the Atlantic. Francis Ford Coppola made his Dracula, Kenneth Branagh his Frankenstein, and Stephen Frears had his Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by directing Mary Reilly.
Replacing Roman Polanski and Tim Burton, who were initially considered, the English filmmaker brings together on screen two of the biggest stars of the moment, Julia Roberts and John Malkovich, and obtains a budget of 47 million dollars. Alas, the box office flop is resounding (only 12 million in revenue), and the feedback from the press and the public drives the point home. But it could well be that the film’s purely erotic and subversive dimension disconcerted the spectators (fragility, when you hold us).
Reailly sexy
PORTRAIT OF A GIRL ON FIRE
You may have noticed, but it happens quite often that the iconic character of a story is upstaged by his sidekick or a surprise alter-ego. We won’t risk listing all the examples. Let’s perhaps mention The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, or to stay on the subject that interests us, the more recent Doctor Frankenstein, where Daniel Radcliffe took center stage in the role of Igor, the protégé of the famous scientist played by James McAvoy.
The same is true in Mary Reilly, whose title clearly sets the tone, and which above all espouses the point of view of this young servant (Roberts therefore, far from Pretty Woman), in the service of a mysterious London doctor, Henry Jekyll (Malkovich). One day, he informs all his staff that he will henceforth be assisted in his research by Edward Hyde, a brilliant gentleman with exemplary discretion. Of course, as everyone knows, and Mary will be the privileged witness, the master of the house is in truth hiding an uncomfortable double identity.
Wolf, are you there? What are you doing?
Dissimulation is more than ever the subject here. However, Mary does not have her eyes in her pocket and does not hesitate to defy the prohibitions to cross this threshold that constantly keeps her at a distance. And it must be said that the doctor’s Victorian home lends itself wonderfully to the voyeuristic inclinations of the heroine, whose favorite pastime is to stand precisely in the doorway left ajar or in front of a window from which she can watch just about everything.
The fact that fog, an eternal attribute of Gothic fantasy, envelops the building adds…
