Queen Victoria was NOT a nice lady!!!

Rating: 9/10 (31 August 2002)

So don't expect truth from this movie. I didn't, so was quite 'entertained' -- if watching a heart spurt it's blood geyserlike into a fireplace is entertaining. Not knowing any of the history, I could accept it for what it was, a movie with some excellent acting from Johnny Depp and those wonderful English actors. Thank God there is still the class-consciousness and upraised finger to the 'posh' that I love about my hypocritical country, shown by the incompetent head inspector over-ruling the smart young if addicted detective. (Follow the money, to find out about social class in the United States. But at least we PRETEND to be class-less, and come to think of it, we often are!!!).
Interesting perspective on the FreeMasons, about whom I'm now inspired to find out. Did they really have human sacrifices, and were they in collusion to do horrible things, an upper-class lynch mob? My step-father was all set to go through initiation into the Masons and discovered at the last moment their segregation rules, so sacrificed the paid dues and the bonhomie of their companionship (during the 60s).
If you think of the movie as a better-than-average thriller, you'll like it, with some good acting to boot. The carriage of DEATH with the heavy-footed black horses set the mood, nicely. In fact, have a "Jack the Ripper" home film festival and watch Michael Caine's version after this one. Many similar touches.
Someday someone will give us a dramatic movie that shows us the forces that drive a woman into prostitution and it's horrible degradation. And I think I've got a hideous humiliating job, working for a monster!!!!!!! Who knows? You may even feel better about your job after seeing this movie. I did.