Good movie, and the DVD includes some factual 'Ripper' information.

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2005)

Like many I suppose, I had a passing awareness that a criminal called 'Jack the Ripper' once roamed, but nothing more than that. This movie clarifies who he was, and gives us a gripping thriller to boot. As we are told in the DVD extras, it remains a mystery as to who exactly he was, or why he killed a number of women during that period in the late 1880s and the early 1890s London, but the story here is based on one of the possibilities. The title comes from an actual note believed to be written by the killer, and signed 'from hell.'
Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Fred Abberline, who has a habit of smoking drugs and drinking absinthe, but also a reputation for solving crimes with very scarce clues. He is depicted as one who often dreams of the solution and can foreshadow crimes.
Heather Graham adopts a mostly believable Irish accent and plays Mary Kelly, a woman of the street. Ian Holm is superb as Sir William Gull, a former surgeon, and who becomes a key player in solving the mystery presented in this story. Also good is Robbie Coltrane as Sergeant Peter Godley who often assists Abberline.
A movie about gory murders must contain some gore, but the directors keep it to a minimum so that the gore supports the story and never seems gratuitous.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. It turns out that Gull was the ripper, assisted by his carriage driver. Turns out the heir to the throne in England had secretly married a Catholic, they had a baby, and the only way for the Freemasons (represented by Gull) to save the integrity of the throne was to get rid of the heir and his mother. But there were witnesses, a group of prostitutes who had to be murdered also, and that was his motive. But they weren't just killings, but ritual murders, that is why victims were also disemboweled. Mary Kelly was to be the final murder, but Abberline gets to the scene just in time to save her and defeat Jack The Ripper. Fiction, but a good story.