There’s something initially intriguing in this gender-flipped take on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from the rebooted Hammer studio brand, starring Eddie Izzard as Dr Nina Jekyll. But it soon reveals itself as bafflingly laborious, leaden and self-conscious, with the star often going into the familiar quirky monologue-riffing style, which might be hilarious in Izzard’s standup comedy, but it’s weird in the wrong way here.
The comedy in the central performance feels unsettled, undermining the film’s horror potential, which is in any case damaged by the over-egged musical score and misfiring jump non-scares. The legendary dual personae of the story are not interestingly differentiated, or really differentiated at all, both being very much Izzard.
Scott Chambers plays Rob Stevenson (middle name Louis), a young guy out of prison on licence, in need of work to please his parole officer, who might also be persuaded to give him access to his adored infant daughter. Thanks to his brother, Rob gets a job as live-in carer to reclusive billionaire scientist Dr Nina Jekyll, who has reportedly withdrawn from public life due to her health issues.
Despite the pursed-lipped disapproval of Dr Jekyll’s Mrs Danvers-y housekeeper (played by Lindsay Duncan), something in Rob’s sweetness and honesty amuses Dr Jekyll and she gives Rob the position, with responsibility for looking after her in her vast secluded mansion and seeing that she gets her meds. But soon things go terribly wrong. There are cameos here from no less than Simon Callow and Jonathan Hyde, and it looks like an interesting experiment, but there is something fundamentally inert here.
• Doctor Jekyll is released on 27 October in UK cinemas.
