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From Hell film review
FROM HELL
Running time: 122 mins
Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm, Jason Flemyng
More than a 100 years after the mystery of Jack The Ripper became a worldwide phenomenon, writers and filmmakers are still fascinated with the subject. From Hell concerns itself less with trying to offer a new solution and more with dramatising an old one in an original and stylised manner. The unremarkable result is a fictionalised and glamorised version of events whose setting seems far closer to 21st century Hollywood than 19th century East London.
Directed by the Hughes Brothers, Albert and Allen, who came to prominence with their 1993 black urban drama Menace II Society, Jack the Ripper would appear an unlikely choice of topic. From Hell is based on the comprehensive graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell and it's the book's dark and gory visuals that seem to have captivated the directors as much as the legend. The saturated colours, close-ups and moody lighting resemble stills from a comic strip, imbuing the film with a look and feel that offers little in way of reality.
Clearly more interested in attracting a wider audience than plaudits for authenticity, Johnny Depp is employed along with an occasional cockney accent to play Inspector George Abberline, the man in charge of the Jack the Ripper case. First discovered prostrate and comatose in an opium den by an exasperated sergeant Godley (Robbie Coltrane), Abberline is depicted as a laudanum and absinthe-swilling genius detective whose drug-induced visions aid his police work. As the Ripper embarks on his bloody carnage, Abberline is revived and despatched to Whitechapel.
Transposing the brutality of the book onto the big screen was a dilemma for the Hughes Brothers as they endeavoured to capture the stark horror of the murders without being gratuitous. While still graphic, the film's more vicious moments are swathed in a dim light and edited for flair rather than shock. The decision to show restraint is one that left brother Albert to rue, "There's still a part of me that goes we sold out because we didn't show all the blood."
One of the film's biggest problems is that it's trying to strike a balance between a plausible quest for a solution and an exaggerated sense of style. A sanguine London skyline resembles a painting and the impossibly grim streets where the Ripper roamed have been transformed into a glossy and illusory set, while Heather Graham is as unconvincing as an East London hooker as her hair colour is. Its unreal red hue sets her apart from her drab surroundings as much as her dubious accent. Her relationship with Abberline also underscores the film's willingness to sacrifice historical accuracy in the name of expedience.
Abberline's inquiries unearth a conspiracy whose trail winds its way through a vast network of the country's leading citizens, including his own superiors, through the influential freemasons, via the royal surgeon Sir William Gull (Ian Holm), before ending up at Queen Victoria. It's an intriguing supposition and one that has long had support. It's also one that From Hell explores with an irreverent gusto, but in the end the brothers let their excesses get in the way of a good story.
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