A Stylish and Suspenseful Look at the World of Jack the Ripper

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2001)

The world of Jack the Ripper is a dreadful place. London of 1888 is grimy, gloomy, and labyrinthine, and the skies are tinted the color of blood. This London is a desolate place, and From Hell doesn't succeed merely as a thriller, but also as an astonishing glimpse of ugly, polluted, and overpopulated London after the initial boom of the Industrial Revolution. From Hell makes an outstanding point by demonstrating the declining morale of the public during the reign of prudish Queen Victoria. The use of trains is an especially great thing; at least two of the murders take place while a locomotive can be heard in the background.
Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp: Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow) is the detective put in charge of the case. Along with a deductive mind and a loyal partner (Robbie Coltrane: Goldeneye), Abberline is able to see the murders actually occur while under the influence of opium, his drug of choice. These dream sequences are probably the most poignant and powerful scenes within the entire movie. While unraveling a vast conspiracy involving the throne and the Freemasons, he becomes acquainted with the only good-looking prostitute in London, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham: Bowfinger, Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me), who inevitably becomes the center of an entirely unnecessary romance.
What From Hell fails in is becoming too obsessed with the identity of the infamous killer. While the first hour of the film sculpt the anti-industrialist themes and build up a suspenseful thriller, the last half of the movie turns into a predictable, if slightly above-average, murder mystery. Suspense has built up a considerable amount by the third act, and the easiest route is taken when the elaborate scheme is clumsily unveiled by just a small series of dialogues, which leads to an undeservedly short and simple resolution. If only the finale had lived up to its preceding acts and had the filmmakers not have had such an obsessive devotion to unveiling the killer, then From Hell could receive a full-fledged recommendation, and would have undoubtedly would have become known as a masterpiece of the thriller genre. It's a shame it just doesn't live up to its own potential.

8/10