"England doesn't have any whores, just a great mass of very unlucky women." Overlong inaccurate account of Jack the Ripper.

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2005)

From Hell is set in the filth of a Victorian London during 1888 in the Whitechapel District where it seems there are prostitutes & knife wielding maniac's on every corner, a bit like it is now then really! It starts by introducing a group of six friends, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), Ann Crook (Joanna Page), Liz Stride (Susan Lynch), Annie Chapman (Katrin Cartlidge), Polly Nichols (Annabelle Apsion) & Kate Eddowes (Lesley Sharp) who all happen to be prostitutes & supposedly look out for each other. One member of the group, Ann Crook is now the Mother of a young baby, has recently married into money & promises the girls that she will give them four quid to pay a Victorian pimp named McQueen (David Schofield) & his men. Shortly after the girls then witness Ann, her husband Albert (Mark Dexter) & their baby being dragged screaming from a flat by Ben Kidney (Terence Harvey) & his men who all work for Scotland Yard special branch, later on that night Mary is warned not to mention to anyone what she saw. Also that night Polly is brutally murdered, she has her throat cut from ear to ear & her body is horribly mutilated. The drug addicted Inspector Fred Abberline (Johnny Depp), Sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane) & Scotland Yard's finest are on the case. Annie Chapman is next to be brutally slain by the killer who has become known as 'Jack the Ripper', getting absolutely nowhere with his investigations Inspector Abberline seeks the advice of Sir William Gull (Ian Holm) & his protégé Dr. Ferral (Paul Rhys). Together they agree that the 'Ripper' is probably an educated man & very knowledgeable about human anatomy & the use of surgical instruments indicating that he may be a Doctor. As Abberline gets closer to unveiling 'Jack the Rippers' identity he faces resistance from his superiors, special branch, falls in love with Mary & uncovers dark secrets & conspiracy's that go to the very highest levels of Royalty & Government...
Executive produced & directed by Albert & Allen Hughes as The Hughes Brothers I thought From Hell was an OK mystery thriller but nothing to get too excited about. The script by Terry Hayes & Rafael Yglesias based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell is far too long & becomes dull to watch as it neither works as a factual reconstruction of the 'Ripper' events or as a fictional horror/thriller, this feels like a teen slasher based around a few of the more well-known Ripper elements. There are massive inaccuracies between what takes place in From Hell & what happened in reality, the prostitutes never knew each other & if this is the case then the entire explanation that From Hell gives must be wrong & therefore most of From Hell is pure fiction straight away & this alone destroys any sort of credibility that it tries to achieve. Inspector Abberline was nothing like Johnny Depp & he lived until 1929 & had a distinguished career, & I'm not too sure if the real Inspector Abberline would have had psychic visions of the murders before they happened! I'm positive that there are loads more too. From Hell falls also flat as a fictional tale because it is just far to intricate, there are too many characters who do very little, not enough screen time is given to the 'Ripper' or his motives & far too much time is given to the group of moaning filthy prostitutes. I also thought the semi-happy ending & Jack's eventual motive were well off the pace. But the thing that really sinks From Hell in my humble opinion is that it is just so slow, dull & uneventful. In fact I actually fell asleep about 20 or so minutes before the end & had to rewind the tape so I could catch the end, I shouldn't have bothered really. On a positive note From Hell has exceptional production design, the filth, squaller & nastiness of the back streets of Victorian London are wonderfully recreated in great detail. From Hell is also a visually strong film with some flashy camera techniques like when the Ripper stabs a girl in a pitch black archway where at first the only thing we see is the silver blade of his knife as it catches the light but the blade starts to turn more red each time it re-catches the light after disappearing for a second, editing tricks & nice use of CGI to enhance certain imagery & some of the cityscapes of Victorian London with a shot of Big Ben in complete shadow at night & a gorgeous looking red sky behind it particularly springing to mind. The violence & gore was mostly implied & mostly consisted of graphic shots of dead bodies although there is one of the best on screen slit throats it's been my pleasure to view... Technically From Hell is top-notch throughout, but then that's the least I expect from a film with an estimated budget of $35,000,000, the acting is very good from all involved & a special mention goes to the fantastic Robbie Coltrane who is just brilliant & makes his character very likable. Overall I thought From Hell was an OK way to pass a couple of hours & I can't in all honesty call it a bad film but it could have been done with being 15 or 20 odd minute's shorter which would have increased the pace & helped maintain my interest. As it stands I don't think I'll be in any hurry to watch it again anytime soon. Worth watching if you can find a copy going cheap or catch it on TV for free.