Released under the Hammer Films banner (although I’m not exactly sure what the connection is between this iteration of Hammer Films and the blood-soaked classics from the 1960s-’70s) comes a modern retelling of the legendary Dr. Jekyll story from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 Gothic horror novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The original tale made such an impact that the Jekyll and Hyde label was often put on people with an outwardly good but sometimes shockingly evil nature. But did the passive Dr. Jekyll turn into the murderous Hyde because of an elixir or was he unstable to begin with?
Directed by Joe Stephenson (Chicken; the upcoming Brian Epstein biopic Midas Man), the modern-set Doctor Jekyll stars Eddie Izzard as the trans Doctor Nina Jekyll who is mildly incapacitated and needs to hire a helper until she is properly healed. Over the years, Jekyll has been quite successful as a behavior researcher, but a recent scandal (some of which has to do with her coming out as trans) has left her without much of a platform. Her right-hand woman, Sandra (Lindsay Duncan), finds an application from a recently released convict named Rob (Scott Chambers) to bring Dr. Jekyll meals and her medication, but after Sandra realizes Rob was just released from prison, she dismisses him until Jekyll, seeing a kindred spirit, decides to hire him.
In its transformation moments from Jekyll to “Rachel Hyde,” the film takes on themes of identity and duality, without forgetting to give us flashes of dark humor, giving Izzard a real avenue for her to flex her acting muscles in both dramatic and comedic ways. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the film campy, but writer Dan Kelly-Mulhern has certainly given Izzard enough room to show flashes of caring and compassion one moment and jarringly shift into a charming sociopath the next.
It turns out, Rob was also a drug addict before he was thrown into prison, and his ex-girlfriend Maeve (the mother of his baby daughter, whom he’s never met) is attempting to blackmail him into letting her and a few junkie friends break into Jekyll’s home to rob the place. That subplot doesn’t really amount to much, and what it does turn into is probably the most obvious and predictable plot point of this or any movie this year.
It’s impossible to watch Izzard perform—either doing standup or during her recent one-woman Hamlet turn at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre—and not be mesmerized, especially during this somewhat-tense take on this twisted fairytale. The problems begin with the other actors (Duncan excluded), who don't seem up to the task of either matching Izzard’s melodramatic spark or playing it straight enough to be a sounding board for some of the story’s inherent weirdness.
Rob’s older brother Ewan (Morgan Watkins) pops up in a couple of scenes and adds nothing of value to the proceedings. Even a flashback sequence in which we find out Nina is the great-granddaughter of the original Henry Jekyll feels more like desperation to connect the two stories than a compelling plot point. The film also doesn’t leave open the possibility that Hyde is a product of a psychotic instability and not just a drug (one that is smoked, fyi), likely because the makers don’t want to imply that anything trans adjacent is a mental illness.
Still, that choice lessens the impact of the entire metaphor, perhaps even erases it. It should come as no surprise that the ideas of Doctor Jekyll are more interesting than the execution, and the film’s final showdown between Hyde and young Rob lands with a mighty thud, as does much of the movie.
The film begins playing in theaters on Friday.
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