- Directed by Joe Stephenson
- Written by Dan Kelly-Mulhern, Robert Louis Stevenson
- Stars Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Lindsay Duncan, Robyn Cara
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyPUuM4COMU&themeRefresh=1
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was well made, with very good acting and a great setting. The script left us wanting, though. There wasn’t enough monstrosity going on, and we felt like they missed an opportunity by keeping it as tame as they did. We didn’t hate it but don’t give it our highest recommendation.
Spoilery Synopsis
Rob watches “Plan 9 From Outer Space” as the credits roll. We see headlines about “Trans CEO Abused”, “Where is Nina Jekyll?” Afterward, he talks to his brother Ewan about seeing Maeve in town. Ewan says he’s got a job interview lined up for Rob tomorrow; he’ll be caring for someone.
Rob goes to the interview, way out in the country at a huge estate. The woman who runs the house has Rob stand as she scans him with a metal detector, and he also signs a non-disclosure agreement about what he’s going to see. He goes in to see the owner, Doctor Nina Jekyll. Nina insists that she doesn’t need “help” she needs a helper. Rob says he was a caregiver during his time in prison; he just got out last week. He impresses the doctor, and he gets the job, a live-in position. Rob needs the job so he can fulfill his parole and get to see his daughter again.
Sandra, the woman in charge, insists that Rob leave his phone in his room; she gives him a pager for Nina to reach him with. She explains that there are cameras in most every room, and she’ll be watching and waiting for him to screw up. Right away, Nina likes Rob’s choice in breakfast foods. After breakfast, Nina has Rob reset all the alarms in the house and the security password. And he gives him her watch because he doesn’t have one. While he’s checking the sensors, he finds a mysterious, locked door.
At lunch time, Nina wants Rob to deactivate all the alarms; she’s forgotten her instructions from the morning. The next day, there’s Hell to pay from Sandra when she finds out he’s done to the alarms, she thinks he stole the watch, and Nina wasn’t given her medications; he’s immediately fired, but he’s done nothing wrong, he was doing was Nina wanted and she said she’d do her own medications. Nina apologies for Sandra’s overreaction. Nina wants to hire him permanently to make up for the snafu. Sandra is not pleased, but it’s not up to her.
At the store the next day, Rob runs into Maeve, his ex. She already knows where he’s working. She’s also the reason he went to prison, and she’s got ideas about Nina’s big mostly empty house, she wants to rob it. He says no way. Later, Rob shows his daughter’s medical records to Dr. Jekyll; his little girl has leukemia.
Late that night, Rob overhears Nina arguing with someone. The caged bird is especially upset about it. Later, Rob mentions that he hasn’t seen Sandra in several days, and Nina is evasive about that. Rob later finds Sandra’s cellphone in a desk drawer. Rob and Nina get to know each other much better over a game of chess and booze. After she sends Rob out for more liquor, we notice that the cigarettes Nina is smoking burn with a green flame.
Rob goes into a bar in town, and Maeve gets after him to help her on another robbery job at Nina’s estate. “If you don’t do this, you’ll never see Ari again,” she threatens. On the way home, Maeve’s crime buddies beat up Rob. While he’s gone, the somewhat-disabled Nina dances alone looking much more spry. Rob comes back, beaten and bloody, and Nina takes care of him.
In the morning, Rob wakes, all patched up; Nina’s a doctor, after all. She doesn’t remember the chess game last night. She talks about her grandfather, Henry Jekyll, who was like a father to her. “He was taken away.” She talks about his research, and where it all went wrong. We watch in a black-and-white flashback as old Henry smokes green cigarettes. “He developed the same illness that I have now.” It made him “twisted, ugly, and evil. Help me kill it, Rob. Help kill me.”
Rob refuses to kill Nina; he knows that she did something to Sandra. “She calls herself Rachel Hyde. I’ve never played chess myself.” After some soul-searching, Rob agrees to help Nina do away with Rachel. Nina plans to stab herself, but she wants Rob there to finish her off if Rachel tries to intervene. She really does have it all planned out. It will all look like a suicide that doesn’t involve Rob.
Nina stabs herself. Rob turns his back and hears Nina arguing with her other self. As she pulls the dagger out, Maeve and another robber in a mask come in behind him; this is really rotten timing. Maeve thinks Rob stabbed her. They lock Rob outside just as Rachel sits up. She wants to reward Maeve for saving her life. Rachel then kills Maeve. Rachel, holding a gun, smiles at Rob, who is locked outside. Rachel pulls the other bandits’ mask off, and it’s Ewan, Rob’s brother.
Rachel then blows Ewan’s head off. She then gives a long monologue to Rob, already knowing how this is all going to work out. She plotted everything to use Rob. She has a contract where Rob gets everything she owns– if he allows her to take over his body. If not, she’ll just call the police and blame all the bodies on him. All he has to do is smoke one of her green cigarettes. He reluctantly agrees.
She lets Rob back inside, and she hands him a cigarette, which he smokes. Rachel falls down, and Nina wakes up. Rob convulses a few times, and we see that Rachel, or actually the original Mr. Hyde, now inhabits him.
Time passes, and we see that Rob is now interviewed as the CEO of Nina’s large pharmaceutical company. It was so sad, says the host, that he lost Nina and then his daughter to cancer, and Rob does seem momentarily upset, but ends with the evil smile of a victor.
Commentary
Eddie Izzard, a trans actor who identifies as female but has played many male characters, is Nina, so we just assumed that she would be turning into a man at some point here as Mr. Hyde. Our expectations were subverted when we found that Nina Jekyll and “Rachel” Hyde look exactly alike. It seems like a missed opportunity. Eddie was working it, but the difference between the two personae was too subtle. We could barely tell the difference, and neither could Sandra or Rob until she chose to reveal herself. There just wasn’t enough difference between the two personas. Other than a little memory loss at times, Nina seemed mostly normal.
It’s a fun story, but it’s essentially just a story of a split personality rather than a real physical change, at least until the very end when things get a bit stranger.
The sets, music, and cinematography are excellent. The acting is fine, and the characters are odd enough to be interesting. The storyline is a little convoluted– if Hyde was some kind of evil entity, why was the cigarette necessary? I have many questions. Overall, I liked it, but it’s one of those you don’t want to think too heavily about.