From Hell - where the script came from?

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2002)

Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's brilliant graphic novel 'From Hell' is one of the most original and intelligent works of fiction in recent years, and something I cannot recommend highly enough. Please don't let this useless film adaptation put you off the superb original. 'From Hell' the movie is simply awful. The basic thing which sinks it from the outset is a lousy, illogical script that seems to totally miss everything that made Moore's work so enthralling. All the original and thought provoking elements are thrown out, and the bare bones of the plot are recast as a tired, cliched murder mystery, which holds no surprises or suspense, and which, let's face it was done much more convincingly in 'Murder By Decree' back in the 1970s. Johnny Depp is badly miscast as the middle aged Inspector Abberline, his accent is very shaky, and his drug use and clairvoyant visions are bogus and unnecessarily tacked on. The rest of the cast struggles with the poor material. Heather Graham is also a strange casting choice and not very convincing. Robbie Coltrane is reasonable. Ian Holm is well chosen but his character is a major disappointment. And so it goes, on and on. I liked The Hughes brothers underrated 'Dead Presidents', and enjoyed their documentary 'American Pimp'. I think they've got more good movies in them, but this isn't one. No matter how talented they are with a script as bad as this one there's very little that can be done to rescue this misguided and embarrassing project.