From Hell

Review - Note On One Line Review - I chosen to give the email address of the most comprehensive site on Jack The Ripper that I have found.  It affords information on the victims, the suspects, the theories, and a library of source material to investigate.  I recommend viewing the site before you see the film to familiarize yourself with information to better understand what you'll witness in the film.  If you chose not to, that's fine, but I'm sure you'll want to give the site a look over after you've seen From Hell to better understand the information you'll obtain while watching the film.

Review - Allen and Albert Hughes, the brother directing team responsible for the acclaimed ‘Menace 2 Society’ and ‘Dead Presidents’ has returned after a 6-year (accepting 2001's documentary American Pimp) hiatus to bring a very detailed and complete version of the Jack The Ripper story.

Based on Alan Morre and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel of the same name, From Hell, tells the complete story of one of the many theories posed about Jack The Ripper.  Proving the validity of said theory is inconsequential as it's plausibility seems well intact.  I imagine many moviegoers will leave the theater believing to have solved the Ripper case.  From Hell is that complete.

Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Frederick Abberline, the real life inspector assigned to the Ripper case in 1888.  Depp's Abberline is a known drug addict who claims to have visions of the killings (as well as other crimes) and uses his visionistic intuition to solve the crimes.  This is the most underused and ineffectual portion of From Hell.  A veritable waste, and most historically inaccurate.  I only mention it here because it was stoopid.

Heather Graham is Mary Kelly...Not exactly the hooker with a heart of gold but the semi-sweet girl who became the Ripper's last and most grizzly murder victim.

Ian Holm and Robbie Coltrane round out the central cast and are both more whimsical and interesting their leading counterparts.

The music is sufficiently creepy and the storyline is pretty solid (although the detecting is rather weak).  That aside, From Hell is the best Ripper film to date, that I can recall.  Thoroughly telling the appalling tale of the Ripper Murders from what may be their very core.  The Hughes Brothers involvement of the Masonic Order, police and political corruption, and the conspiracy theory are unparalleled in cinematic Ripper tales.  Most people have no idea of the supposed Masonic involvement or the details of the Royal Conspiracy.  They all know Jack as some guy who killed some hookers a couple of hundred years ago.  I say go to the website and see the pictures.  This stuff aint pretty.

Which brings me to the visuals.  From Hell is not a tough movie to watch.  Thankfully most of the visuals have been removed, both during and after the murders.  Although they are discussed in great detail and the consistent scenes of grown men throwing up can be almost as hard on the viewer as the gruesomeness would be to see. There are however a few very shocking moments so do be warned and then thank the Hughes Brothers for leaving the greater part of those moments to your imagination.

-m-