MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’: Long on Vial

In the laughless and lifeless “Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde,” Tim Daly plays Richard Jacks, a scientist at a perfume company whose career is in a downward spiral when he inherits some papers written by his great-grandfather, Dr. Henry Jekyll. Yes, that Dr. Jekyll.

Jacks messes around with his ancestor’s infamous formula, and before you can say, “ ‘Young Frankenstein’ did all this much more cleverly,” he’s morphing into Helen Hyde, who is--if you haven’t figured it out already--a woman.

That’s what passes for comic invention here. Getting Sean Young to ostensibly parody her quixotic media image by playing Hyde, who exploits her feminine wiles to claw her way over Jacks and up the corporate ladder, might have been funny six or seven years ago when that reputation was fresh on people’s minds.

Directed by David Price, who has a couple of barely released horror sequels on his resume, and credited to four writers who usually labor as script doctors (script physicians, heal thine own screenplay!), “Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde” is a smirky, uninspired work that treats all its characters as one-dimensional dopes. Plotting is both illogical and predictable--Jacks’ and Hyde’s transformations occur at the most inconvenient times--and paste-and-stitch editing, working in tandem with klutzy voice-over narration, can’t mask the fact that many scenes have been drastically altered or jettisoned altogether. For example, Robert Wuhl turns up in the finale, without any explanation of who his character is or why he’s there.

Already, the sexist humor here is as dated as the drug humor in “Jekyll and Hyde . . . Together Again,” the similarly hapless 1982 cinematic parody of the Robert Louis Stevenson yarn. Before Helen barters her sex appeal for company muscle, she’s embraced by various characters as being “alive” and “her own person”--for doing what? Shopping, mainly.

Unsurprisingly, no one’s heart seems to be into this. Some of the cast (such as Young) barely put forth any effort, while those who do try (such as Daly) only embarrass themselves with their broad, reaching performances. Unlike the tormented Hyde of lore, there’s nothing redeeming in this movie struggling to get out.

* MPAA-rating: PG-13, for crude sex-related scenes and humor, nudity and brief strong language. Times guidelines: Its sexuality is teasing and kinky in an adolescent fashion.

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‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’

Sean Young: Helen Hyde

Tim Daly: Richard Jacks

Lysette: Anthony Sarah

Rank Film Distributors presents a Rastar/Leider-Shapiro production, released by Savoy Pictures. Director David Price. Producers Robert Shapiro and Jerry Leider. Executive producer John Morrissey. Screenplay by Tim John & Oliver Bucher and William Davies & William Osborne. Cinematographer Tom Priestley. Editor Tony Lombardo. Costumes Molly Maginnis. Music Mark McKenzie. Production design Gregory Melton. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.