Murder by Decree

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2006)

Once again, Hollywood tries to pretend that the past never happened.
Although uncredited, this film is a direct remake of a Sherlock Holmes film from 1979, "Murder by Decree", starring Christopher Plummer as Holmes. Even some of the camera set-ups and editing are the same.
"From Hell" adds more sex and a little more gore; also, its ending is depressingly negative.
However, the original "Decree" was also pretty darn depressing. The detective, however brilliant, cannot move the mountains of society through the practice of reason and civility. The rich and the powerful, sick as they are, have some ability to reconstruct the world according to their own psychoses.
No doubt. That was why the Plummer-Holmes film is not well remembered, and it is one of the elements in the present film that makes it, too, difficult to watch.
"From Hell", though depressing, is well made; the acting is solid; the mystery elements are handled well - although in place of Holmes' deductive powers, the case is solved more through some kind of magic or ESP (this was very unclear to me). Overall, the level of suspense keeping us watching is maintained.
But I confess I am weary that we get these regurgitations presented to us as though they were brand new. In an era when the Government threatens to arrest working-class kids for downloading mp3s, the rich and the powerful seem to be able to bootleg and plagiarize all they choose.
Dam' depressing, indeed.