Atmospheric, but overlong and boring take on Jack The Ripper.

Rating: 4/10 (15 May 2010)

From Hell has all the potential in the world to be a great, grimmy version of Jack The Ripper, but it falls heavily short of that potential for one reason, It's to dull for it's own good. I don't mind slow and methodical films, but everything just seemed dull in my opinion, with only Johnny Depp's performance being the only salvation to this movie. It's also very cruel spirited as well. Johnny Depp's inspector character is quite charismatic, but a bit too full of himself at times, the treatment of woman is disgusting, and it's just very, very depressing looking as well. The streets of London have the perfect looking atmosphere, the set pieces are terrific, it's great visually, but I was just too bored to care.
Performances. Johnny Depp is his usual charismatic self, but suffers from an overly cocky character, and his chemistry with Heather Graham isn't that great. Heather Graham is beautiful but I didn't care much for her character. Ian Holm's intense performance is great, while Robbie Coltrane does good work as The Sergeant.
Bottom line. It's atmospheric, well acted for the most part, and it looks great, but it's just too dull. You might wanna use the skip button for the DVD to fast forward, because it is very talky. Some will ultimately disagree with me and love the style, but I did not.
4/10