This isn't dumb, but it plays out as academically as it sounds, without a shred of true terror and with only the most muted sexual charge. Solemn, portentous and curiously dull, there is simply no chemical charge between Roberts and Malkovich.

The film is too mannered, too stuffy.

Sluggish and interminable, Mary Reilly makes good on little of its potential to be disturbing and none of its chance to be emotionally involving.

Certainly Julia Roberts' strangest role, and she does an OK job.