Movie Two Hundred Fifty Nine
The hunt is on for an investigator to find the identity of Jack the Ripper in From Hell.
After the kidnapping of a prostitute in London, followed by the murder of another nearby, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) and her peers find themselves part of a large conspiracy and manhunt for the killer. Inspector Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp) becomes involved and through his opium binges, gets visions of the case. Several more prostitutes are brutally murdered and Abberline suspects the killer is medically trained, and involves a royal family physician, William Gull (Ian Holm). Soon, Abberline finds the hunt for Jack the Ripper is more intricate than he imagined.
While I’ve never read the graphic novel that From Hell is based on, I honestly can’t say that I would look forward to it. I was always put off by its length (nearly 575 pages), despite my interest in the Whitechapel murders and Jack the Ripper. From Hell is a serviceable movie, though it plods along for far too long in the middle and by the end, the pacing was ruined and I didn’t care so much about the outcome. Even though I had seen this film before, I had forgotten the finer details of the plot, including most of the ending.
One thing that really stood out in From Hell is the widely varying accents of the actors. While some of the actors are, in fact, British, Depp and Graham are obviously not and they both choose very awkward manners of speaking. While this isn’t the type of detail that would normally ruin a movie for me, I found myself disinterested in the plot and focusing on their forced accents. At least it made From Hell go by quicker.
Still, as far as Jack the Ripper movies go, From Hell is one of the better ones I’ve seen. While the Whitechapel murder cases are famously unsolved, From Hell does have a sound theory on who the killer was. It’s a theory that makes a lot of sense, but is brought down a bit by the rest of the movie. From Hell is definitely recommended for Jack the Ripper fans, but looking at just the movie, without the lore, it’s bland and uninteresting.
I give it 3 substituting absinthe for opium out of 5.
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I like this Jack Ripper take. Kind of reminds me of the late-Bob Clark’s ‘Murder by Decree’.
Ooh, I haven’t seen that one but I love Bob Clark films!
I think I’ve seen this but I can’t remember. I guess that says something about the film. :p
Pretty much, yeah.
I watched this last year and have to say that I almost gave up with it half way through. Found it quite slow, fairly implausible despite being inspired by real events and wasn’t a fan of the costumes and styling either.
I definitely agree with you there.
I love From Hell. My favorite Jack the Ripper movie is still Time After Time, but this one is definitely second.
Time After Time is one I’ll need to check out!
The Alan Moore original is AWESOME. I have to say, I really really loved it. It is enormous, I know, but its soooo fascinating. Seriously. Its long, but it was really worth it. Great graphic novel, for real.
The movie, not as great, but still very good I thought. Very entertaining.
Man, why are you tempting me with it?!
I’m sure I’ll read it one day but dammit, I’m going to procrastinate and bitch about it until that day comes!
The accents in this movie made my ears bleed and my eyes weep.
I can’t be sure, but I think Heather Graham uses at least 3 variations of her accent.
This was before I started to hate Johnny Depp, but still haven’t seen it.
Eh? Hate Johnny Depp? What, what? Is this jealousy speaking? 😉
I swear it’s not jealousy. I think the man’s talented, but I’m kinda sick of him. And his fangirls/boys. I think he’s tremendously overrated.
Lol! Fair enough.
He’s done a lot of crap films too, I will readily hold my hands up to that. But, until the Pirates, I always thought he showed integrity for picking films that he believed in (I’m thinking Ed Wood, Benny and Joon etc…) and then it felt like he was cashing in. I also suppose that whenever you see Burton’s releasing a new flick, it’s practically inevitable that him and HBC are gonna be in it… still, he’s hot. 😉
“But, until the Pirates, I always thought he showed integrity for picking films that he believed in and then it felt like he was cashing in” I definitely agree.
🙂
Haha I know what you mean…and this won’t change your mind about Depp.
Skipping it, then.
Yes, yes and yes, Andy. As soon as I saw the icon for this film on your blog I started to laugh. I’m a really big JD fan, but she is fricking awful. Her voice sounds utterly ludicrus. Seriously. I am really interested in accents and hers is just laughable. God, as an actor your voice is one of your most significant tools. There’s no excuse for her having the same sort of phoney cockney accent that Dick van Dyke barely got away with in Mary Poppins… yes, other than that the film is pretty mediocre. But I’m in complete agreement, the accents are way too distracting! Lol! Sorry, rant over! 😉
I just got your SW comment about being sick. Hope you’re feeling better now!
To be truthful, better accents wouldn’t have saved this film haha
I am still a bit under the weather, but I’m feeling much better – Thanks!
You’re not wrong… But Johnny Depp’s always a plus (for me anyway). Did you see ‘Rango’? The first half is so good… don’t care for the second half, but there’s great attention to detail in the first section. Love it! 🙂
Glad you’re on the mend.Take it easy. 🙂
I was hugely impressed by Rango. It’s such a smartly done film with a great Raoul Duke reference – I assume that’s what you’re referring to?
No. I can’t lie, I have to confess my ignorance here, I have no idea who Raoul Duke is, but I’m ready for my education! 🙂
I just loved the incredible attention to detail and how vivid everything was. I was disappointed at the arrival of Isla Fisher’s character purely because her voice/accent was quite hard to decipher.
Oh! Raoul Duke is the alter ego for Hunter Thompson and the main character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, whom was also played by Depp. The scene with the big red convertible in the very beginning. I found several other sly nods to cinema that I can’t remember now.
Oh of course! I can’t believe I had forgotten that was his name! I showed this film at the end of summer term to my pupils at school (shh, don’t tell anyone) and loved trying to explain that to them! It’s brilliant, isn’t it? 🙂 It’s those details that are just pure genius. 🙂
It really is a great movie that wasn’t marketed very well, at least here in the States.
my thoughts exactly. several scenes were a little silly. the opening scene, the drug-induced stupor, seemed funny when it shouldn’t have been.
The weird thing is that I don’t remember feeling that way about the film when it was released. Maybe it was me being younger or the film just fitting in more with what was coming out around the time. Either way, the film was unintentionally silly.
speaking of unintentionally silly – have you ever seen “rocky horror”? what do you think of the debate about whether they were really trying to be stupid silly or they were trying to make a serious musical/horror?
Oh man, I never thought they were trying to be serious…I really hope they knew how stupid that film was when they were making it.
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