Sleek, Stylish, but at Times Familiar Thriller

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2001)

You enter a world where the sky is dark, and the streets of cobblestone match. The streets are crawling with late-night walkers and hookers at work. A streak of murder has been striking these prostitutes, with their bodies being slashed and their organs being removed. You have entered the world of "From Hell", a decently crafted thriller about Jack the Ripper.
Set in 1888 London, prostitute Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) and her friends (also prostitutes, of course) aren't exactly in the best of the times. Their boss is demanding a pay of 4 pounds a week, and in a much bigger problem, a mysterious killer, who the residents merely call Jack the Ripper, is sweeping through the streets of London, slashing specific prostitutes in a pattern. The police force, along with working on the case themselves, decide to call on the help of Detective Fred Abberline (Johnny Depp), an opium-addict who, while under the influence, sees visions of how prostitutes will be murdered by Jack the Ripper...and which prostitute is next (insert suspense music here).
This was not your typical hack 'em up, kill everyone, gore and blood all over the place movie. Yes, the movie had lots of gore (this movie is NOT for sensitive stomachs) and lots of blood, but it also contained substance amidst all the killings and violence. Many (too many) thrillers rely on slashing and murder and gore to support the movie fully, without containing a story, but "From Hell" provided a good script, a good and followable story, and...well, the filler needed to make a good movie a good movie.

The one thing I would've preferred to be left from the story were the cliche`s. The script contained familiar territory that I've seen before, many times. The best example I can give without spoiling anything is the distinguishing of Mary Kelly from the rest of her prostitute friends. The movie took the tired route of making Mary Kelly prettier, well-kept, wearing makeup, and well-dressed, while her friends...well, looked like poor streetwalkers: no makeup, tattered dresses, etc. I'm tired of movies making the lead girl look more well-bred than her friends, because it seems unrealistic. Why not just make Mary Kelly actually look like a prostitute, and not like a rich, pretty girl who finds herself amongst a bunch of lesser-looking friends? Or if Mary Kelly looks like this, why not make her friends look the same? It might seem more realistic this way.
The pacing in the movie was good, but the movie dragged. The movie actually felt like it was two hours long, and that was a little exhausting. Don't think I have a short attention span-I've been able to sit through movies like "Traffic", "Magnolia", and "AI", all of which are longer than "From Hell", and I didn't have any trouble doing so. Those movies didn't feel like their lengths, and "From Hell" did.
The acting was good. Johnny Depp delivered a great performance as Detective Abberline, making his character believable. I wouldn't say Oscar-caliber, but performances don't have to be Oscar-worthy to be good. Heather Graham was pretty good too-at times she seemed a little wooden, and I think her character would've been more believable if she seemed more scared about Jack the Ripper. I knew she was concerned, but she sometimes seemed too mello about her life being in danger, like, "Oh, well, Jack the Ripper is sweeping through London and killing my friends, and I may be next...la dee da dee da!"
The movie was cinematically brilliant. The murder scenes were well-filmed; one murder was seen as merely darkness with slashes of light being the only thing seen. The best moments cinematically were during Detective Abberline's Opium dreams-you can't even go into description about how great they really were.
Overall the movie was very chic and very enjoyable. Take away the cliche`s, and make the movie move quicker, and it would've received those two extra points from me.
8/10, B+