You Can Tell This Is An American Film

Rating: 5/10 (28 August 2003)

Why is it Americans have a laughably ethnocentric view of Britain ? They seem to be under the impression that each and every person of the United Kingdom is a cockney who says " Cor blimey Guv " a lot and works as a chimney sweep . In fact the only people we see in American movies who aren`t cockneys are the royal family ! Even BAND OF BROTHERS suffers from this flaw and that was a BBC co-production ! I must admit that it was nice to see the producers FROM HELL did their homework on 19th century London - By watching MARY POPPINS over and over again
Not having a time machine I`ve never been to 1888 London but can`t help thinking the ethnic make of the city is all wrong with everyone talking with a cockney accent , wouldn`t London be full of Scots and Irish swapping their Scottish and Irish slums for one in London ? Just curious because everyone with the exception of Robbie Coltrane`s character is either a cockney or a former public schoolboy , and of course by casting a bunch of native Brits you can`t help notice how bad the accents coming from Johnny Depp and Heather Graham are . Depp especially is abysmal
As the film continues you still notice the annoying accents but other irritants force their way into the movie . Despite having characters that existed in real life they`re written beyond all recognition , for instance Inspector Abberline had visions of the killings like some sort of psychic ? I don`t think so , oh and that bit with the diversion at Special Branch didn`t happen either and there`s no evidence he had a relationship with Mary Kelly or that any of the victims knew each other . Talking of Mary Kelly I was going to point out that , physically at least , that the real life Mary Kelly does not in any way resemble the one seen here but being an American film you`ve got to excuse some artistic license where glamour is involved

Actually this glamour jars with the opening of the film which shows the London of 1888 being a human hell hole with drunkeness and drug addiction being the norm . Strangely this actually correct , in those days drugs weren`t outlawed and a great many people took all types of drugs that would now be called " Class A drugs "( Including Queen Victoria ) though there`s no evidence Inspector Abberline was a user , so once again it`s disappointing to see so much historical inaccuracy involved especially The Rippers motivations . I can`t disprove the theories put forward but do empires collapse like this ? In my opinion - No . Oh and talking of The Ripper it`s very very obvious who he is when he first opens his mouth about twenty minutes into the movie because you`ll be able to recognise the actor`s voice straight away
So FROM HELL could have been a very good movie , but alas it`s not