Not very good (mild spoilers)

Rating: 4/10 (27 March 2003)

The actual Ripper events make a pretty exciting mystery in themselves, so why play with historical facts? This film is so full of deliberate inaccuracies and unintended anachronisms that they become distracting, and the alterations do nothing to advance the story. I didn't mind the Freemason theme - though it's part of an old and improbable theory, it is dramatically effective - but I thoroughly disliked making Inspector Abberline (who in real life was a much-decorated and respectably married cop of 45 in 1888) 20 years younger, a drug addict, and the lover of one of the women concerned in the case. Indeed, that last touch tended to drag the film's pace down to a crawl. As for the performances, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm, and the great Ian Richardson stole the show, but Johnny Depp and Heather Graham were just cardboard characters, flawed action hero and flawed damsel in distress, and I honestly didn't care what happened to them. One excellent touch: the sound of the metal coach steps being let down, like knives clanking against each other. The murderer's fantasy during the last murder was also well done. Other than that, a rather lame account.