Not a hot film, not a cold one.... From Limbo

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2002)

A clarvoyant inspector works on the famed Jack the Ripper murder cases in Victorian era London. Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) can best be described as troubled, as he is haunted both by his own psychic abilities and his dependence on absinthe. As destitute prostitutes are murdered and eviscerated, disemboweled, and worse on the streets of the extremely poor Whitechapel section of the city, Abberline tries to discern the culprit - it's a learned man, he concludes, one with a distinct knowledge of medicine. Smart lad, that.
As Abberline becomes more and more involved with the case, he also becomes more involved with one prostitute in particular whose group seems to have been targeted, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham). From the start, one can tell that Mary and Abberline will hook up, because she is the only prostitute who does not look downtrodden and, well, like a bucket of mud. (As a point of fact, love interests never look like buckets of mud, unless the story is about a cure for looking like a bucket of mud, or something.)

At any rate, as Abberline investigates further, he runs into his ultraconservative, image-conscious boss, who even asks him to destroy evidence and suspends him (how come so few police chiefs and the like actually act in concert with their detectives and officers on the screen? How come the cop has to go beyond regulations to get at the truth?). Abberline does have the help of his colleague Peter Godley (the always-reliable Robbie Coltrane), but in general he's on his own. Can he solve the crimes?
Depp attempts to disappear into the role, and for the most part he succeeds, right down to what sounds to me like an authentic Cockney accent (but what do I know?). The problem is, the story's weak, and when the lead actor's just trying to blend in, the movie comes off as rather pedestrian. In other words, folks, you've already seen this movie in one form or another. There are some twists, but they're minor ones. It's a rainy, cold, dark, dreary movie, much like I imagine London itself was back then (and perhaps still is, at times). There's simply not much unique with this movie, and it could have been just as well done with lesser-known stars. Graham, in particular, is wasted here - she's a fine actress, but she's left to do little more than be a victim. In addition, the ending is pretty unsatisfying, although the killer is named.