Tags:
Film: From Hell
Year: 2001
Director: The Hugh Brothers (Albert and Allen Hughes)
Writer: Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias
Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Ian Holm
Review:
This was a movie that I remember when it came out, but at the time I wasn’t the biggest fan of Johnny Depp. This is one that did intrigue me to see. It wasn’t until being on the people’s council for the Podcast Under the Stairs that I finally saw it. Jaime and I watched it together. I had read the graphic novel ahead of time. We’ve also sat down for a second watch as part of Depp Dive: A Depper look at Johnny’s Feature Filmography. It doubled as an Odyssey through the Ones watch as well.
Synopsis: Victorian-era London, a troubled clairvoyant police detective investigates the murders of Jack the Ripper.
We’re in London in the year 1888. The movie presents us with a group of prostitutes of Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), Dark Annie Chapman (Katrin Cartlidge), Liz Stride (Susan Lynch), Kate Eddowes (Lesley Sharp), Polly Nichols (Annabelle Apsion) and Martha Tabram (Samantha Spiro). Something I want to point out here is that this is a rough life. There weren’t a lot of prospects and these women are doing what they can to survive.
To make it more difficult, McQueen (David Schofield) along with one of his men from the Nichols Street Gang tell the women they owe each owe a pound for protection. This group has another friend, Ann Crook (Joanna Page). She has a newborn baby and asks them to watch her so she can see her husband, Albert Sickert (Mark Dexter). They tell her about their run-in and they can’t today. Ann tells them if they do, she will get Albert to pay what is owed.
Things take a turn though when Albert and she are making love, they’re interrupted. Benjamin Kidney (Terence Harvey) along with his secret police takes the two into custody. Mary sees them being taken away. She and her crew don’t understand what is going on. They just know it can’t be good. They decide to take her child to Ann’s parents as they regroup.
Martha is then murdered that night. It is a brutal one where her labia are removed. This causes Sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane) to seek out Inspector Frederick Abberline (Depp) in an opium den. After getting him sobered up as best as he can, they go to the crime scene. Frederick is known to have visions that help him solve cases. Other officers are skeptical, but he does get results.
Soon after, Polly is murdered. The imagery is great as she is staring at an obelisk and we hear someone speaking softly in verse. Frederick picks up almost at once that this killer isn’t working alone. His investigation brings him and Sgt Godley to Mary and her friends. At first, they don’t want to talk, but they tell them about the Nichols Gang along with their threat. Sgt Godley doesn’t necessarily believe it. There is a much bigger plot of what is going on here. It would cause a scandal as it leads Frederick to Sir William Gull (Ian Holm), a physician to the monarch, Dr. Ferral (Paul Rhys) who is a young promising surgeon that was accepted into the Freemasons and the true identity of Albert. The question though, who is Jack the Ripper and why is he targeting these specific prostitutes?
That’s where I want to leave my recap of the movie as I’m trying to give as much background to get you up to speed if you’ve not seen this or it has been a while. I brought up again that I’ve read the graphic novel and much like this movie, there’s a lot of information that is given to us.
While watching this, I tried my best to not spoil things for Jaime while giving her insight that I had into the case. That is something that I want to credit Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias in bringing to life the source material from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. I should also mention The Hughes Brothers as the directors. Let me then shift that there is factual information that was put into the graphic novel to the point where it is historically accurate. It is said there are liberties taken to make it more interesting though. This movie does good at bringing that to life. I read that the crime scenes were made to match and I recall a sequence at the climax straight from the book. There is time and care taken into this, I have to give credit for.
Something else this does an excellent job of is the setting of Victorian-era London. It feels and looks dirty. How hard of a life it is for these women to survive is another aspect. Going along with this, we see that everyone looks down on the prostitutes who are just trying to survive, even though many will frequent them when their needs aren’t met. Something else that struck me as well is that it isn't surprising that there would be cover-ups involving the police or that body snatching was a profession. It makes it even more believable when you have a group like the Freemasons that find their roots from the Knights Templar. I’m not saying that’s the truth of what really happened here, but the conspiracy theorist in me could see it.
Before I go down a rabbit hole, let me shift to discuss the interesting characters. I don’t remember Frederick being psychic in the book. Depp plays the role spot on though. He just has that charismatic nature and quirky enough that I could see him using the drugs that he is. On top of that, he’s hurting and masking it. There have been bad cards dealt his way and he just wants to help these women. Graham is attractive, despite women in this profession in this era not being that way. Her performance is good. Holm is in his role as well. There is also a solid cast of actors around them like Coltrane, Rhys and Jason Flemyng as the coachman Netley. The acting is solid across the board.
I’ll then finish with filmmaking. I’ve touched on how well this does at bringing the time period to life. Starting with the effects. What surprised me is how brutal this movie gets. There is a cutting of a throat scene that I remember and just hearing about how these women are killed is horrific as well. The deaths are off-screen for the most part, which is something to keep in mind, but we do get glimpses of the aftermath. It works in a way where my imagination fills things in. I’ve already spoken about the setting of the movie so aside from that, the cinematography does interesting things. I give credit there and they did an excellent job on top of that making this feel like London of the era. It isn’t as good at making it character, but I could believe we are seeing events from then.
In conclusion, this is an excellent adaptation of the source material. I wanted to be vague so as not to spoil things. It is also tough in that we truly don’t know who Jack the Ripper is. There’s an interesting mystery in this movie and I think it moves at a good pace. I never get bored despite its two hour runtime which is good. The acting brings these characters to life, shout-outs to Depp and Holm. The effects were good and I think that soundtrack fit what was needed. If I did have issues, it would be hard to differentiate certain characters. Other than that, this is a great take on the true events.
My Rating: 8 out of 10