As Illuminating As The Victorian Gas Lamp

Rating: 5/10 (2 July 2002)

Inspector Fred Abberline (Depp) is thrust into the middle of his (nee' England's) most serious crime wave: Jack The Ripper. He's a capable officer with a loyal assistant (Coltrane) but it's going to take more than guess work and intuition to crack this evil-nut. Fortunately, Abberline is also gifted with special sight. Unfortunately, it doesn't help prevent the murders. Unbelievably, he falls in love with the prostitute at the head of the group seemingly on the Ripper's slash list: Mary Kelly (Graham). Can he prevent her demise?! Are the Royal Family REALLY involved?! Are the Juwes the ones who will not be blamed for nothing?!
If you know nothing about the life and times of history's most celebrated serial killer then you will probably appreciate this well made, atmospheric thriller for the brooding fantasy feature it is. Unfortunately, the more you know about the period of the Ripper, the less - proportionally - you will like about this film. For starters, the theory at the heart of the plot has almost universally been either discretited or, at the very least, presented as unrectifiably flawed. Secondly, Abberline's penchant for narcotics is (and always has been) highly debatable. A difficult point to reconcile oneself with when it forms a rock-solid tenet of the movie's story. And then there's the prostitutes: Graham as Mary Kelly suffers from being at least a league prettier than the next whore (until Estelle Skornik's belated appearance), a red-head (when in reality blonde) and being burdened with a hybrid London/English accent bearing no element of her native Irish or her adopted Welsh (she lived in Cardiff until her early twenties)? Likewise, 'Long' Liz Stride displays not a jot of her native Swedish accent despite only locating to England well into her mid twenties.

There are several other flaws which will niggle away at most viewers who possess even a slight knowledge of the murders. But, so what? It's a film. A piece of cinema. It's not supposed to be true. It's quite well made and (for the most part) reigns in it's cliches. Depp invests a certain acting integrity and is supported, ably, by a stong British cast allowed to spout reasonably believable dialogue. But it's not any greater than that. And it DOES purport to be true. All the characters existed and virtually all of them did what they did in the film. So picking up on easily rectifiable flaws IS valid. There are few things worse than lazy film making and - despite some tangible plus points - there is a veneer of sloppiness here which is sometimes difficult to see beyond.