Underrated Exploration of Sex, Love, Power + Abuse

(NOTE: For some reason, most of my apostrophes disappeared. Don't know if it's a formatting thing but please forgive any errors you see...)

Hey guys, excuse the looooong essay. (I know. *WALL*OF*TEXT*OMGWHYYY?* ;-P)

But hear me out. I was browsing IMDb this evening and ended up here at Mary Reilly, a movie I really enjoyed way back in the 90's, and I was shocked (shocked, I say!) at the 5.6 rating. I mean, you have Frears and Hampton, and some great actors and atmosphere, while I do think it's flawed, I think Mary Reilly as a film is far, far better than a 5.6 rating. Which is what I normally reserve for, like, really bad movies starring unfunny comic actors often dressed up as women, but then again, (1) that's just me, and (2) this poor thing is only rated like 26% fresh at RT, so I guess IMDb treated it more kindly than some.

Anyway. I disagree. And here’'s why:

First off, it's beautifully literate. I never read the novel on which this is based, but beyond the female cast that adds a welcome complexity to Robert Louis Stevenson’'s almost total male cast in the original Jekyll/Hyde novel, there's a huge amount of intriguing subtext in this film that I assume must come from Martin'’s novel, a lot of it really dark and presented in a way I have rarely seen addressed on film. It's about men, women, abuse, survival, sex, inner demons, rage, power, and dominance. Some really heavy stuff.

Mary, for instance is fascinating to me. There's the attraction of Mary toward both Jekyll and Hyde and it's never even a question that she can choose between them. She loves both a savior and the terrifyingly attractive abuser/violent killer all within the same man. Ironically in some ways Jekyll/Hyde is catnip for a formerly abused child, embodying every contrary impulse those scenarios can cause. She gets to yearn for her heroic potential rescuer while also fearing yet lusting after the violent yet attractive man who reminds her (it is clearly implied) of her abusive father.

Yet Mary is also very open-eyed about her own past as an abused child, and for instance I love the moment when she quietly refuses to paint her past in simple shades of love or hate or black and white because that past has helped to make her who she is. This confounds Jekyll, who is ALL about black and white, about dividing himself clearly from his worst impulses, but it also attracts his Hyde self, because it means he may have a chance to be more than he has been trapped into being (Think about it: Hyde is created for the express purpose of embodying darkness and evil. He has no choice to be other than what he is. But Mary actually does awaken a man with the potential to choose his own outcome...)

Ultimately, Mary recognizes what draws her, and that her impulse towards Hyde is not a good one, but her awareness that she loves Hyde for his darkness just as much as she loves Jekyll for his goodness is pretty fascinating to me. As other posters here have commented, it's the classic 'good girls find bad boys irresistible' conundrum but it's also more interesting and complex than that.

In fact, to me it is also slightly and intriguingly hinted that Jekyll himself was abused, and that he is seeking in some way to free (and absolve) the abuser within. He says to Mary that he wanted to be “"the knife as well as the wound.”" He wants to be able to remain unsullied, gentle and kind while living out the darkest impulses perhaps implanted in him long ago. To me it is very evident that Jekyll fears sex, not unlike Mary -- he seems hesitant and nervous, a lifelong bachelor, and one who at the least views sex with some distrust or distaste, something to be done in the darkness at the corrupt brothel, in brief self-loathing. Yet, interestingly, Mary herself in fact is visibly disappointed in his unwillingness to voice the romantic feelings they both appear to feel in several scenes as the story goes on.

Hyde, meanwhile, may be a violent, cruel killer, yet he is also nevertheless totally and believably attractive to Mary because of his honesty and open sexuality. He basically says in every way, 'confront me and confront the darkness you deny in yourself;' and as their scenes go on, they are less about Hyde crudely tormenting her and more and more about her own sexual awakening and adulthood. There'’s a truly creepy yet erotic dream sequence when Mary finds Hyde in her bed, and she rather childishly and playfully giggles, then flirts with him before ‘awakening’ and rather than being angry, he simply says, mimicking her slight accent, "I thought ye invited me here." Mary is astonished yet also palpably relieved at her own answer: “I did.” It'’s a great scene, essential, and an incredibly thought-provoking (and disturbing) moment for the character.

And yes, Roberts's accent is pretty odd, but it was a minor detail for me -- I also found it kind of believable when I saw the movie again later, because to me she seems to be playing the child of an Irish immigrant or indentured servant (to me this is implied with her mother), who had married a cruel Englishman. Roberts's accent is therefore colored with these oddly Irish vowels. I didn’t mind the slight backstory this gave the character.

Which also handily explains the mishmash of accents in the film -- it paints a picture of a time and place with a variety of people all attempting to escape themselves. And it also means that Malkovich's American accent can also fit into the mix and make some kind of believable sense. The upper classes are forgiven almost anything, after all.

And aside from the slightly weirdness of the accent, overall, I like Roberts's performance as Mary. Most importantly, she is very expressive visually, and does have that hollow, haunted, dark-eyed look of a pretty servant girl with her own secrets.

As far as performances, I think Malkovich is pretty wonderful here too. The two men seem very different to me, and I do buy her attraction to both. Jekyll is gentle and kind, 50ish and almost faded (with pale blue eyes) and genuinely interested in Mary as a person (not just as a servant/unperson). While Hyde is younger -- seemingly 35-ish, dark-eyed, magnetic and fiercely attractive, and does in fact return to Mary suddenly and rather scarily for a gorgeously filmed kiss.

Ultimately, I'd give Mary Reilly a solid 8 just for the little nuances. Like the opening scene, where Mary takes the eel out of the barrel for cooking, but awakens it with the warmth of her hands, so that the housekeeper must violently chop off its head then peel it, startling and disturbing Mary. This eel scene works is a nice metaphor for Mary's warmth awakening both the beast and the humanity in Dr. Jekyll and the cold Mr. Hyde (which basically brings on much of the trouble to follow). And it's also a fairly literal metaphor for her fear of men and sex, and of her fear of inadvertently awakening the beast in men.

While there are a few flaws for me -- some violence is played clumsily -- the paradox is truly thought-provoking. Both Mary and Jekyll are damaged, fearful formerly abused people yet Mary is much stronger in her way. Jekyll's fear leads him to an evil act that dooms him, while Mary's own past as an abused child actually leads her to discover her own strength. The more Hyde torments her, the stronger she gets. And the more intrigued he becomes.

So I find it fascinating that Mary's love is what awakens Jekyll, yet also awakens, dooms and humanizes Hyde, and causes him to discover his own humanity. Which then dooms Jekyll as well. Which brings to mind some echoes of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” retellings. Hyde is changed despite his worst impulses. He is changed by Mary and changes her in turn.

I also like the film as a fascinating exploration of gender and power in Victorian times. Jekyll has all the power of a wealthy older white male yet is oddly powerless in his personal life; the butler Poole runs his house with a cold eye, yet it is the kind housekeeper, and several girls like Mary and her roommate, who keep it running and who see everything that passes. And even Poole is not shown to be evil, just rigid -- we glimpse him both powerless, confused and briefly sympathetic in a few moments as well.

Jekyll seems so kind yet he is also inwardly complex. He is the one who puts Mary squarely in Hyde's path even though he knows Hyde's own evil better than anyone. He is the one who appears to set Mary a series of tasks for Hyde that are both increasingly disturbing and dangerous yet which are also almost like romantic hurdles -- it's as if he cannot speak up himself, so he's setting her up with his younger, more virile counterpart. Each thing Mary accomplishes without blanching -- assisting Hyde, going to the street of blood, going to the bloody room of the prostitute, hiding him from the pursuit of the law -- only makes him more in love with her, yet he is pointedly putting her in terrible danger at every step. It’s a really strange scenario when you think about it.

So there’s a lot more to Mary Reilly than meets the eye. As a production, I thought it was beautifully done, overall. Some movies, you watch, and you feel you are entering that world. I felt the same thing here with the gorgeous cinematography and production, the fog, the little nuances of Mary's hard life as a servant (even as one for a kind master), the glimpses of daily life in the Jekyll household that he never even considers (like the preparation and journey of a simple cup of tea up to his room). You really feel the drudgery, the dawn-to-twilight nature of pure, hard servant work.

So for me Mary Reilly deserves better. I think the movie is mildly flawed but has aged well, and proves to be pretty fascinating upon exploration. I definitely think it's a solid 7 or 8, depending on your tolerance for the little weirdnesses. For me it's one of those movies I know isn't perfect, but I found it powerfully thought-provoking, and the years haven't changed that.

Cheers! I'’ll look forward to your thoughts...