pretty and boring

Rating: 4/10 (2 August 2003)

This misguided attempt to bring a beautiful graphic novel to the screen hopes that viewers will be so blown away by its visual richness, they will forgive its weak execution of story. Not to be confused with plot - which, from the graphic novel, is unique and intriguing - story is the execution of the plot, and in this film it fails miserably.
Perhaps the Hughes Brothers felt they had to write down to a level below their own intellect, or feared their film would be disliked if the average moviegoer didn't understand what was going on before the characters reached the same conclusions. But this dumbing down amounts to a film with no character-centered surprises, and a surprise based on what feels like a red herring plot twist leaves me very cold indeed.
Within the first twenty minutes I had deduced the identity of the man Fred Abberline was hunting, and I literally spent the next two hours waiting to be proven wrong. My disappointment at finding that the big surprise was not who, but rather why, knew no bounds. If this is the device by which to save an already-solved murder mystery, it must resonate as a shock and a means to empathize with the murderer. It is the fault of the screenriters' and directors' execution that this ending, which is so shocking and powerful in the graphic novel, falls flat and feels unfinished here.
Johnny Depp's layered portrayals can save nearly any film from the wasteland of 5-and-below ratings, but here he is powerless to resurrect the story. He is not given enough to do, though what he does, he does well. Unfortunately, the filmmakers set him up as a fool, which the character clearly is not, and this takes the legs out from under Depp's redeeming power.
Spoilers follow:
By limiting the history, background, and purpose of the Freemasons to a couple of pretty but empty scenes, the viewer is robbed of any investment in the institution as a character in its own right. Moore's twist on Jack the Ripper as a politically motivated murderer, rather than the first modern serial killer, is a truly unique perspective deserving of a read. But the graphic novel, though you may know the ending of the film, will still surprise you, and I recommend it as an antidote to any disappointment you experienced here. 4/10