A silly film with very little appeal beyond three good performances by supporting actors.

Rating: 5/10 (28 February 2009)

Where to start? To begin with, the plot has already been filmed in an adequate (and vastly more entertaining) manner in the 1979 film with Christopher Plummer and James Mason 'Murder by decree'. Secondly, Johnny Depp's 'English' accent must be well up there for the Dick Van Dyke 'cod-English, 'gor, blimey, govn'r'' Award - it is so abysmal that you LONG for another of the 'opium den'/'vision' scenes because one knows that at least he will keep his mouth shut and spare one's ears. The 'opium den' scenes themselves, and the role they 'play' in the script, are also themselves the height of silliness, even if they play the 'key' role in the final scenes and the 'saving' of Depp's sweet-heart. The whole role and everything about the latter ('Mary Kelly') is also virtually 'off the silliness scale'. As usual with films about Jack the Ripper, the producers want it both ways; revelling in the filth, poverty, gore, diseases and total cheapness of and disregard for human life prevalent in the slum areas of London in the 1880s, whilst, of course, portraying the lead, especially female, characters, as if they had actually nothing to do with such surroundings. The police photographs and crime scene sketches of the time, to which the film refers at many stages, show the real Mary Kelly (as with all of the other victims of the Ripper) for what they actually were - wasted, emaciated, disease-ridden and broken women, decades old before their time. The 'Mary Kelly' of this film, with her fresh complexion, beautiful 'Pre-Raphaelite' auburn hair, spotless clothes and bright, assertive expression is a travesty of the reality. If, however, 'Kelly's' general appearance and demeanour are shams, wait until the final scene when she escapes to a 'designer' cottage directly on the coast of Ireland with her 'rescued daughter' and decides to devote her life to bringing up the latter in healthy,clean and invigorating surroundings rather than the rat-infested slums of the East End of London - I say, what a terrific idea! A VERY silly ending to an extremely silly film which deserves to be totally forgotten and left to the type of murk and dark obscurity in which most of it is shot and which even makes the physical act of simply watching almost as disagreeable as waiting for the 'plot' to unfold. The ONLY saving graces were the performances of Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm and Ian Richardson (the latter's appearances, though, being far too brief).