Product Details

• Actors: Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, George Cole, Michael Gambon, Kathy Staff
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: April 1, 1997
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304109326
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,259 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Stephen Frears reunites with the production talents who made the tempting Dangerous Liaisons for this new look at the infamous Dr. Jekyll (a deft John Malkovich). Instead of being in the laboratory where the good doctor unlocks his evil twin, we stay in the mansion overlooking the lab. An inquisitive, proper maid, Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts) slowly becomes Dr. Jekyll's confidant. Rather than a horror story, the film is a spooky mystery that keeps us in the dark, and what a wonderful dark Frears and his designers have fashioned. Roberts carries the movie, digging deep for her best dramatic work to date. Though some may wish she'd show more passion, she holds her emotions appropriately in check. The movie faced considerable, well-documented troubles, including the reshooting of several scenes months after the initial production. This probably affected the finale, which has little impact and nearly ruins a good thing. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker

John Malkovich plays Dr. Jekyll, the kindly man of science, and his brutish alter ego, Mr. Hyde, and Julia Roberts plays a wide-eyed Irish housemaid who is, it seems, attracted to both of her employer's personalities. The movie-directed by Stephen Frears, from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton-is solemn, brooding, and lifeless. Frears and his superb cinematographer, Philippe Rousselot, establish a dark, portentous visual mood, but the script stubbornly refuses to deliver the horror-movie payoffs that it promises. And the director, whose temperament is essentially ironic, doesn't bring much conviction to the romantic elements of the drama. This is, unfortunately, one of those genre pictures in which subtext has been promoted to text and vulgar narrative has been sent downstairs to the servants' quarters. Instead of revealing, as Robert Louis Stevenson's original story did, the bestial impulses repressed by Victorian respectability, the movie attempts to release the literary soul pent up within the crude, vigorous form of horror fiction, and the experiment backfires: the high-toned metaphor runs amok and kills the audience's pleasure. Also with George Cole and Michael Gambon. Based on a novel by Valerie Martin. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Malkovich and Roberts Lights-Up The Screen, July 21, 2000

By 

Tom Palces (Manila, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Reilly (DVD)

Julia Roberts as Mary Reilly is wonderful in the film. She gave a sensitive dramatic performance in this artistic film which takes the classic tale of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde (played superbly by John Malkovich) in a different perspective - in the eyes of his faithful lady servant, Mary, played by Roberts. Also, in the film is a hilarious participation of Glenn Close. I recommend this movie for serious fans of Julia Roberts. Great Film!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nightmares of Fog and Murder, August 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mary Reilly (DVD)

The movie rolls in and out with fog for a reason. You may argue that you didn't like Julia Roberts so-so Irish accent or that the movie was too slow but if you can't see the method behind the madness of this film let me enlighten you. The whole movie drifts as a nightmare of fog. The slow part is due to this floating horrible sense of dread that drifts you through these mysterious places that would tend to seem normal but aren't for some unexplainable reason. It's clear that the bounds of reality and dream seem to mingle throughout this movie, and in most part is very disturbing because of this almost expressionist like effect. But this effect works together with the music to achieve this feeling of lurking fear. In one scene that really scared me, a normal act by the workers of an eel being skinned later turns into a horrible dream by Mary of the dead thing rising and staring at her. The film goes even further than the normal Jekyll and Hyde duality theme, showing that there is duality in almost everything. The day and the night, consciousness and dream, human and beast, love and lust, and for the most part starts to blend the ideas into the normal course of a servant's everyday life. Although Jekyll and Hyde are a good and evil influence on the film they are not shown as much because it's dreamscape is through that of Mary. So it shows him not as the tortured victim of a supernatural will battle that he saw himself as but as a mysterious, psychotic, nightmare being that fleshes itself out throughout the film as a real person. In fact the whole movie becomes more real as it progresses. The movie is a very good example of psychological, dream-like terror that is often disturbing and one of the better versions of the Jekyll and Hyde story, only bested by the silent John Barrymore version.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, February 24, 2000

By 

"claremonde99" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Reilly [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film happens to be a peculiar favorite of mine primarily because the setting, music, and cinematography set the overall haunting atmosphere of the film. Everything about the atmosphere is overshadowing. The film seems to mold the setting as an additional character by accenting the actions of Jekyll, Hyde,and Mary. A particular scene that catches my attention everytime is when Mary plants the flowers in the backyard, and soon afterward the vibrant colors of the flowers do no help "enliven" the space. This is the main reason for why I enjoyed the film because it demonstrates how enviornment forshadows the dangerous activities of the Doctor. However, I do acknowledge there are aspects of the film that are not as strong.There are parts of the film that both distracte, and fascinate me.

The only weak point for me in watching the film is the lack of control in the Irish "accent" from Julia Roberts that filters in and out frequently throughout the film. The acting from the cast is good. John Malkovich's performance was great and as always with a suave seduction that isn't unfamiliar from his previous works. I was surprised however by Julia Robert's portrayal of Mary Reilly. I have never seen Roberts play a character that wasn't "glamorous" to some degree. Mary Reilly is a strong character that has survived abuse, and lived out a good life. I feel that Roberts did convey the sadness and curiosity of the character Mary.

Overall, this film is an enjoyable film, but not a masterpiece or classic. It is a film that is filled with dark corridors, shadows, and fog, all of which add to the story and plight of the principal characters.