From Hell

The critics, nit-pickers and historical pedants who've trashed this superb piece of truly cinematic movie-making have totally missed the point.

So what if Johnny Depp's English accent isn't exactly "right" for his character? (English accents have always been problematic for all but the most skilled of American actors: Depp pulls it off entirely passably, way way better than - say - Keanu Reeves, risible in Coppola's Dracula. Think of Kevin Costner, who didn't even bother trying in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.) I'm a Londoner by birth, and for me the accent in no way detracted from Depp's excellent performance.

As for history, again, who cares if the filmmakers have employed a degree of dramatic licence? This is a movie, not a documentary. Nobody knows for sure who Jack the Ripper was, and in order to make the film interesting and enjoyable the writers have speculated a little. Fine by me.

OK, so Heather Graham was impossibly glamorous, but movies with big budgets need a little bit of star appeal. The notion of the "tart with a heart" is a cliché, sure, but nevertheless her character works in the context of the film. (Contrast the depiction of prostitution generally in this film with the utter garbage that is Pretty Woman.)

What's so great about this film? The quirky, literate script; the performances (all, with the possible exception of Graham, excellent); the wonderful photography and production design; the depiction of the murders themselves - elliptical, shocking, mesmerising; and above all the aura of brooding menace, gloom, cruelty, darkness, melancholy and downright despair running through it as deeply as the veins through a block of marble. This is marvellously thoughtful, evocative film-making, very bold and brave. No happy Hollywood ending, no phoney saccharine or cheap laughs to satisfy the popcorn brigade. This is a proper grown-ups movie that probes some of the darkest regions of the human psyche, places mainstream filmmakers like Lucas, Spielberg, James Cameron and their ilk don't dare to go, or couldn't go even if they wanted to. To me it appeals almost on a subconscious level, forcing us to confront our deepest fears and taboos - death, pain, suffering, human wickedness. I can't think of a recent major release that is so relentlessly downbeat.

Don't let the detractors put you off. It's hardly surprising a generation weened on MTV - folk with the the attention span of a gnat and the emotional depth of a paper cup - didn't like it. They've got their Screams and their Scary Movies, and they're welcome to them. This is super stuff, and the Hughes brothers and their collaborators should be heartily congratulated for it.

A classic, not so much for the plot, which is a little contrived, but for its sure command of cinema as a visual storytelling medium.

The best thing about an enduring mystery is that people can feel free to take all sorts of liberties with the facts and create interesting "what if" scenarios. FROM HELL is a perfect example. For the record, the theory behind the killings is pretty much right out of JACK THE RIPPER: THE FINAL SOLUTION by Stephen Knight, and it's been pretty well discredited since it first came out twenty years ago, even though it makes a hell of an entertaining piece of fiction.

I completely discount any criticisms of the movie where people say "it didn't happen that way". Of course it didn't; that's why this is a fictional film and not a documentary. It's very loosely based on the Alan Moore graphic novel, and about all it retains of it is the Duke of Clarence theory and the stylish look of the architecture. It's enough to make the film beautiful to watch.

Yes, I know that four of the five victims of Jack the Ripper were women in their late 40's, which on the streets of Victorian London would mean that they would resemble crones in their late 60's or early 70's. Just try to make that fly past a Hollywood studio boss; the casting at least had women who looked fairly human rather than like fallen glamour girls. I've read a couple of comments disparaging the accents. Actually, Cockney accents were the norm in the street because people tried to blend in and often weren't eager to advertise Scottish or Irish origins.

I call special attention to the performance of Jason Flemyng in the role of Netley, the coachman, arguably the most fascinating and believable character in the whole production. Most of his best scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, unfortunately, and yet he still manages to pull the movie together into a cohesive whole just by his presence. (It must have been a heck of a fun role to play!) As well, Sir Ian Holm deserves special mention for stepping in when the original choice for his role, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, tragically became ill and died just before the film went into production. I have never seen Sir Ian in any role that I didn't find completely believable, and that ranges all the way from KING LEAR to his role in ALIEN, for heaven's sake.

My interest in the whole Jack the Ripper case has been reawakened thanks to this movie, and I'm trying to hunt down a copy of Alan Moore's graphic novel (which is very difficult to find). No, it's not even close to an approximation of what really happened; nobody will ever know the truth, Patricia Cornwell's arrogant claims notwithstanding. It's still worth renting, if only for the beautifully ominous score and the fascinating transformation of Prague into Victorian London. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

An interesting, if not totally successful variation on the Jack The Ripper story, blighted by Hollywood yet again assuming that anyone in London says "cor blimey" a lot, and speaks in the same exaggerated "cock-er-ney" manner. This is a shame, as the film actually has a lot of good things going for it. Some genuinely chilling set pieces and a suitably grim visual style make for some scary moments. Sadly, particularly in the first half of the film, the Hughes Brothers (directing) seem to spend too much time trying to be visually clever when they should be putting more effort into getting on with the story. When they dispense with the visual gimmickry and the action is allowed to take off, the film is extremely gripping. On another level, the ending is particularly moving. A previous reviewer referred to the film's historical inaccuracies in depth, so I won't retread the same ground, but suffice to say that anyone familiar with the events will be distracted by these, although anyone new to the story wouldn't be affected. Performances are generally good, if not quite the principal performers' best work - in my book, the honours go to the ever reliable Ian Holm and Robbie Coltrane. Overall, this film is well worth a couple of hours of your time, but it could have been so much more...

The story of Jack the Ripper has long been of interest in the horror cinema. Right back in the creaky old days of the silents he made his appearances in the likes of 1926's WAXWORKS and Hitchcock's THE LODGER. An infamous black and white British version of the tale, made in 1959 by a cheap rival to Hammer, has fallen into obscurity but is still best remembered for the final reel, in which the killer is caught beneath a lift and the screen turns to glorious blood red colour for an instant to capture his gory demise. In the 1970s, European horror veteran Jess Franco gave us his typically sleazy variant with 1976's nasty JACK THE RIPPER, with Klaus Kinski in the leading role, whilst Spanish stalwart Paul Naschy made his own variant. In 1988, to mark the centenary of the Ripper murders, a supposedly definitive television miniseries was made in America starring Michael Caine as the investigating policeman. It's a good but flawed telling of the story marred only by the TV-movie level it never rises above. And now, to mark the new millennium, two brothers best known for their gangster rap movies have given the world FROM HELL, which is for a change based on a graphic novel (which I haven't read) of the Ripper story rather than the real-life murder investigation itself.

As a horror film, it works. Everything about this film screams style and class. For a change the gory murders and surgical operations that Jack carries out on his deeply unfortunate victims are shown in graphic detail, rather than only being spoken of like in previous versions of the tale, and no expense is spared in giving us graphic, stomach-churning scenes of the cloaked Ripper calmly sawing out the internal organs of his female victims, kneeling above their prone bodies. Entrails are torn out and wrapped around necks and throats are slashed emitting geysers of crimson gore. Police surgeons repeatedly vomit at the sight of the mutilated corpses and quick flash cuts show us all we need to know about the severity of the crimes, so on a visceral level at least FROM HELL offers pure horror, sometimes nausea-inducing and all the more effective for it. Scenes of the victims being stalked at night by the cruel killer are highly suspenseful, heightened by the dark, baroque music that accompanies them and a high class of acting from all concerned.

Attention to detail also contributes to this movie's success and I would go so far as to say that this is the most authentic-looking Jack the Ripper film that I've yet to see. Although some of the choice language is a little too modern to be that convincing the rest of the dialogue, the sets, the scenery and the costumes are spot-on. You have to love the brief appearance of the Elephant Man into the thick of the action and the secret society of Freemasons who operate below ground. Characters sport lived-in clothes rather than the off-the-shelf garb of the Caine miniseries and the London setting is brilliantly portrayed as a rancid den of sleaze and open depravity, packed with opium dens, pubs full of drunken angry men, and streets littered with filth and beggars.

The cinematography is spot-on and helps to transport you back to 1888, putting you into the realism of the action as we watch drug-induced nightmares of the Ripper slicing up his victims and taking them to pieces. After the initial half hour which bluntly introduces Jack's figure into the depressing London streets the film takes the form of a detective tale as policeman Johnny Depp searches for clues to find the identity of the killer. Once again the film takes the well-worn conspiracy route of there being a royal connection to the killer, so whilst it lacks the element of surprise (aside from those who are complete Ripper novices) the final unmasking of the villain is still a fine piece of shock cinema and the last reel very exciting, incorporating a violent cab ride and the most gruesome murder saved for last into the proceedings.

The cast is bolstered by a host of familiar British faces like Ian Richardson who bring a touch of class to the production although ironically the two leads are American (though you wouldn't guess it, as they do sport impeccable accents as is the norm these days). Johnny Depp once again proves he can do no wrong and it's fair to say that he's become a mini-horror star in recent years with all the genre productions he keeps making. Depp's opium-addicted young policeman makes a nice change from the decent, elder investigators (like Michael Caine in the 1988 miniseries) and he plays a charming, interesting central figure and one which the audience can thankfully emphasise with. Robbie Coltrane plays it tough as Depp's sergeant and basically acts as the comic relief of the production (and boy, does this horrific outing need it). Heather Graham (BOOGIE NIGHTS) is also delightful as Mary Kelly, a would-be victim of the Ripper, and as well as looking spot-on in the role, all flowing red locks and heaving bosoms just like in one of the old Hammer films, plays her part with some skill.

I don't have an unpleasant word to say about anyone else, but special kudos goes to Ian Holm who plays a kindly retired surgeon in one of his last major roles. Subtle use of black contact lenses turn the killer into a deeply scary-looking man and the actor playing Jack really does deserve an Oscar for his role here - the final murder in which he believes he is teaching a class is magnificently-evoked stuff and very clever indeed. FROM HELL is a quality production and one of the better versions of the tale and it will certainly take some doing to better this in the future; for now be content in watching what is a well-paced, scary, sometimes disturbing modern horror yarn.

"From Hell" is another Jack-the-Ripper yarn. This time around Johnny Depp plays Inspector Frederick George Abberline, who is investigating the work of a killer carving up the bodies of prostitutes in Whitechapel, London.

"From Hell" is a borderline horror/thriller. There is a fantastical element to the story as Depp receives visions of the killings, when "chasing the dragon" (or, in simpler terms, when doped up to his eye-balls). These visions are used to make mad-intuitive leaps on Abberline's parts to help push along the story-line, as the bodies begin to pile up. Unfortunately the killer is quite obvious as the script provides "red herrings" which are set up in a manner that you know they're going to be false, so the viewer is "surprised" (or not) when the real killer is revealed. That's a shame as it removes some of the mystery from the movie when you realise you got it right. There's also a rather interesting take on the murderer's reasoning, which is not entirely unwelcome, but does feel somewhat as if they need to pad out the story and distinguish it from other Ripper yarns.

Depp is, as usual, good. His accent appears a bit muddled however - where is he supposed to be from? But, as Hollywood standards go, it's better than average. Robbie Coltrane provides the humour (such as there is) by being Abberline's quipping side-kick, making dry observations of the situations he finds himself in. Coltrane has shown his acting skills in the TV series "Cracker" and he doesn't strain himself here, nor does he outshine himself. The rest of the cast are grand but Heather Graham, as the whore whom Depp falls for, is unconvincing as she looks far too pretty, and well mannered, to be a "lady of the night".

The direction is alright. The Hughes' brothers manage to convey a generally, downbeat and sombre tone to the proceedings. The vision sequences however come across as slightly comic-booky, a reminder of movies of the 60s/70s where they went overboard on filters and camera distortions in order to depict insanity. Far more effective is the bleak visions used in the TV show "Millennium" - here it tends to detract from the seriousness of the moment. Some of the scenes are fairly gory - it features a quite gruesome throat slashing - while other times the violence is seen purely in the reactions of others, without having to expose the viewer to it. Both of these work well. All in all the Hughes' acquit themselves because they fail to actually show a bright, clear image until the very very end of the movie, where the image is accompanied by one of the darkest in the movie. Thus they effectively capture the mood of the city and the times.

"From Hell" suffers from having a lack of tension and a script where characters tend to take on almost caricature tones (some of the prostitutes and the Nickel's gang in particular come across as ham-fisted). Nevertheless there's a mood to the movie, and Depp's performance is convincing enough to keep you watching until the decidedly downbeat end. Recommended for fans of the Victorian thriller/horror genre and those seeking a half-decent movie. 6.4/10