Film review (From Stroud News and Journal)

Film review

FROM HELL (18) JACK the Ripper is one of the most legendary criminals in history - notably because he was never caught, and to this day no-one can be sure who he was. The debate still rages and suspects are many and some famous - The Duke of Clarence (son of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII), and Lewis Carroll among others.

I suspect we shall never know the true identity of the Ripper but I am rather inclined towards James Maybrick.

His wife Florence was convicted and sentenced to death for his murder. She was accused of poisoning her husband, but many consider it was a gross miscarriage of justice and that she was condemned by the press before the trial had even started.

Maybrick was a nasty piece of work, who beat her up when he discovered she was having an affair.

It is widely thought he wrote her initials in the victims blood to incriminate her.

Interestingly from the moment he fell ill and before he died the killings stopped.

This film From Hell is adapted from the novel by Alan Moore and more than implies the Ripper was indeed an educated man of means.

It is 1888 and the atmosphere in London's Whitechapel is uneasy. The notorious Nichols gang is constantly threatening the local prostitutes and demanding protection money of a pound a week from each girl.

Five young friends Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), Kate Eddowes (Lesley Sharp), Liz Stride (Susan Lynch), Dark Annie Chapman (Katrin Cartlidge) and Polly (Annabelle Apsion) stick together and try to look out for each other.

However, when a married friend Ann Crook (Joanna Page) is kidnapped and then one of them is murdered their fear of the Nichols gang turns to terror.

Chief Inspector Sir Charles Warren (Ian Richardson) assigns Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) to the case. Abberline hasn't got over the death of his beloved wife in childbirth and anaesthetises the pain in a haze of opium and absinthe.

Fortunately his sidekick is dependable Sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane) who drags him out of opium dens and covers for him whenever necessary.

Warren wants facts, preferably ones that will incriminate one of Buffalo Bill's touring Indians, a Jew, or a tradesman, as obviously no English gentleman could commit such a crime.

However Abberline's conversation with Sir William Gull (Ian Holm) the Royal physician leads him in a very different direction.

Although this period film is set in Victorian London all the filming was done around the medieval streets of Prague.

From Hell is technically outstanding.

Academy award winning production designer Martin Childs (Shakespeare in Love) and cinematographer Peter Deming (Mulholland Drive) have done a breathtaking job of recreating the murky streets of London.

So it's a pity that Mary Kelly doesn't look grubbier. In one scene she is tied to a bench with her friends; when set free she goes to wash and her skin looks like a Camay advert.

Graham also has an achingly embarrassing Irish accent. There is a fine performance from Holm as the lobotomy enthusiast - thank goodness medical science has progressed - and Coltrane is as usual worth his abundant weight in gold.

Twin directors' Albert and Allen Hughes's (Menace II Society and Dead Presidents) last two films were set in the ghettos of America, so not surprisingly they manage to convey brilliantly the dreary climate of ingrained violence, poverty and racism.

Which just leaves Depp: he certainly looks pale and poorly and his accent is surprisingly good. However, Abberline is so high all the time his character becomes one-dimensional.

The title From Hell comes from a phrase in a provoking note written by the Ripper to the police. It gives a chilling insight into the cat and mouse game he was playing.

As true life psychogical thrillers go this film is suitably grim but I wish someone would write a script around one of the lesser-known Ripper suspects.

This old chestnut has been very over worked.

The plot is similar to Murder by Decree but a lot more graphic. You have been warned!

Clare Shepherd 5/10