Review of From Hell (2001) by Ben L — 16 Mar 2017

I like the idea of a murder mystery film that revolves around the story of Jack the Ripper. I've always been a fan of a good procedural detective story, and when you focus it on one of the most iconic serial killers of all time it makes things really interesting. Sadly, I don't think the fascinating concept is handled all that well in this film. For one thing they add in all these trippy mystical elements that do nothing to further the plot. Johnny Depp's character having drug-induced psychic visions is such a strange choice and it doesn't have a reason to exist in this film. The elaborate dark rituals of the Freemasons also seemed out of place, and merely shoehorned in so they could cast suspicion on more characters.

Johnny Depp isn't terrible as the lead investigator, but his British accent is too reminiscent of Captain Jack Sparrow so it's hard for me to take him seriously. Heather Graham was a terrible casting choice. I do not think she is a very good actress, and she does nothing to make the viewer connect with Mary Kelly. They try to make the viewer emotional about her potential death and other bad things that happen to her, but I felt nothing. Robbie Coltrane was a nice stable force as Depp's partner. I thought he actually brought more of the serious tone that I couldn't detect in the other performances. Finally there was Ian Holm, who delivered brilliantly throughout as I expected and added gravitas to a movie that desperately needed it.

Without spoiling anything in this movie, I will say that they did their best to keep you guessing as to Jack's identity and motive. In fact, for a little while, I thought they'd leave it as a mystery for us in the audience to keep guessing just like in real life. But when he starts to speak, the identity is obvious because they don't do enough to disguise the voice. If you end up not recognizing the voice, then perhaps you will be enthralled by all the possibilities since they keep adding more characters that might be guilty. For me it was disappointing when 30 minutes into a 2-hour murder mystery I guessed who the killer was not by clues, but just lazy film-making. As you can tell, I was a bit disappointed with From Hell. I think there's a good concept in the core of the film, but the movie constructed around that concept is weak.