The latest incarnation of “Doctor Jekyll” isn’t scary enough or campy/weird enough to come off.
The former is no great surprise, as the Robert Louis Stevenson novella has been filmed to death and is too overfamiliar to offer much in the way of shock and awe.
As it stars trans comic Eddie Izzard as Dr. Nina Jekyll and her dragon lady guise by night, Rachel Hyde, the latter judgement comes as a disappointment. Eddie in drag, vamping up the cerebral scientist and her more murderous nocturnal alter ego? How could that not be over-the-top?
In fairness, director Joe Stephenson finally finds something like the right tone for the bloody, pull-out-the-overacting-stops finale. But as this is a production of the venerated horror label Hammer Films, even that’s something of a less-gory-than-you’d-think letdown.
Scott Chambers, who starred in Stephenson’s acclaimed feature debut “Chicken,” is Rob, freshly out of prison but “clean” and in need of work. His brother (Jonathan Hyde, LOL) gets him an interview for a job in “care,” looking after a rich “celeb” doctor recovering from a broken leg on her estate in the country.
Uneducated, unsophisticated Rob has to get past the doctor’s uncompromsing aide, Sandra (Lindsay Duncan), who only agrees to take him on for an unpaid “trial” period, which she is sure he will fail.
Doctor Jekyll? She’s more compassionate, especially when she hears Rob’s got a sick baby daughter he will only be allowed to see if he walks the line and keeps a job during his probation.
Rob has lots of rules and routines to adhere to — medication to administer, meals to deliver, hedges to trim. Nina is forgiving of mistakes, but every now and then lets slip a hint a temper. Still, she’s lonely and interested enough in Rob’s company that she summons him for chess.
“Tonight, I’m going to introduce you to something,” she teases.
What?
“A reason for living.”
But Rob’s ex (Robyn Cara) has other plans. She’s still an addict and determined to wring cash out of “one last job.” Can she force Rob to agree and help burgle his new employer?
Stephenson tries to treat this as a character study in murderously bipolar extremes, which may have medical diagnosis credibility, but doesn’t leave room for any fun.
The pacing is funereal, with too many scenes too inert to move the narrative forward.
Izzard gives Nina a world-weariness at her plight and has the timing and posh accent to make that play when neurologist Nina is relating her family history.
“That don’t make you a bad person,” Rob “Stevenson” assures her.
“Rob, that’s exactly what it does.”
For a 90 minute film, this one takes forever to get to its point, with little of its buildup delivering suspense and nothing in the grimly entertaining finale that we don’t see coming.
Stephenson has a Beatles’ Brian Epstein bio “Midas Man” starring Izzard, Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd in the can. So don’t worry about him.
As for “Jekyll,” Eddie Izzard fans who showed up for decades of stand-up tours and have followed Eddie through some decent film roles, a midlife obsession with running marathons and her evolving description of her sexuality may want to see what she can do with a role that requires evening gowns and a touch of murderous madness.
Rating: unrated, violence, drug abuse
Cast: Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Lindsay Duncan, Robyn Cara, Jonathan Hyde and Simon Callow
Credits: Directed by Joe Stephenson, scripted by Daniel Kelly-Mulhern, based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. A Hammer Films release.
Running time: 1:29
