2001 / 121 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

I had forgotten what it was like to completely surrender to a film, to get so caught up in it that I scarcely gave a thought to anything outside the margins of the screen, until about midway through “From Hell”. The characters, the music, the deliriously effective editing, the amazing visuals and the haunting and chilling atmosphere. It all wrapped me in a fog as dense as that of 1888 London itself and I found myself unable to look away. The film is a hypnotic web of a thriller and I was but a fly caught in the sticky, disturbing web of its creation.

“From Hell” is a fictitious exploration of the hunt for Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper, as you all should know, was the first of all the modern serial killers. For a short time in the late 1800’s, Jack menaced the foggy streets of London, stalking and slaughtering several prostitutes until, inexplicably, the murders stopped. They just ceased and desisted. The infamous Jack was never caught. No one ever discovered his identity. His identity remains an enigma to this very day, more than a hundred years later. “From Hell” is a “what if” film, showing us what might have happened. It explains why the Ripper might have had the knowledge of human anatomy that he did, one so encyclopedic that, working in fog-shrouded, shadowy alleys in the middle of the night, he was able to remove vital organs with a grisly surgeon’s precision. It posits a theory on how he selected his victims. It provides a hypothesis on why he murdered them.

With a dazzling mastery of conspiracy theory unprecedented since Oliver Stone brought us “JFK”, “From Hell” gives us a fictional account behind the scenes of one of the most fascinating mysteries of all time. The conspiracy that the opium and laudanum addled Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) uncovers is never less than absorbing. It has enough twists and turns for three other films, and none of them seem like extraneous plot developments designed simply to keep the viewer awake. When you think it over later, the plot all makes sense.

From the first frame of this film, I was hooked. And Abberline’s character is a marvelous creation. He is a mysterious addict, yet he always gains our sympathies. He is a deeply flawed man with his own secrets and a strange gift for seeing the murders before they even happen. Depp is great here. He doesn’t show off. He doesn’t need to. The “look at me” flourishes another actor would be tempted to throw in would detract from the mesmerizing visuals and framework of the film. Depp is perfect here, as in most of his films, for his ability as a chameleon. This is a totally different creature from men like Ed Wood, Ichabod Crane and Hunter S. Thompson, other characters that Depp has inhabited, and those with a wild and sensational zest. He is more low key here, because the film requires it of him. In the other roles I have mentioned, his bizarre overtones added to the film. Such outlandish shenanigans would not have worked here, so Depp confidently eschews them for this remarkable approach.

But I must also commend Heather Graham. Most of the time, I find her to be an extremely attractive woman (and the display of cleavage she brings to this film does not hurt its grade any) but here she actually is required to act. She does an admirable job as a ditz (see “Bowfinger”) and a slut (see anything else she’s in) but, for the first time since perhaps “Boogie Nights” more is needed of her. And she rises to the challenge, giving us a complicated woman who has prostituted her body but not her mind or her emotions. She is a woman who has made some tough and admittedly bad choices, but she has had the strength to retain her dignity. At first I thought that the relationship which develops between Depp and her might not work, that it might wobble and throw off the story. But it only enhances the tale, and actually serves a purpose in the narrative, unlike most movie romances. And the two leads give an adequate impression of chemistry when they are onscreen together. The relationship does progress a tad quickly, but then again, the movie has a lot of ground to cover.

The Hughes Brothers have done a superb job here. I liked the fact that they are black filmmakers, yet they did not want to get pigeonholed doing ghetto gangsta movies. There’s nothing wrong with a filmmaker like Spike Lee, who only wants to do issue films and nothing else. But I admire the Hughes Brothers for wanting to branch out and do something else. They show a remarkable flair with the camera (the opening shot alone is better than anything I’ve seen in a John Singleton film) and editing. The editor and screenwriters should likewise be commended, for the solidity of the tale being told. But many of the transitions are utterly flawless. The film is never less than intriguing. And it is also quite scary at times. The moment when the camera starts on the Ripper’s back as he saws away at one of his victims, then moves slowly away from him, yet never leaves him entirely, is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. The film at times moves from scene to scene with the finesse of Hitchcock or Scorsese. The atmosphere of the film is almost tangible. London itself becomes a character, and one of great dread and almost unbearable suspense at times. The gore has been slammed in this film, but I found the film’s use of violence to be sparing and effective. It’s interesting how little we actually see of the Ripper’s heinous crimes, yet the film makes us feel that we have seen far more.

It’s chilling, it’s unsettling, it’s got a delightfully creepy atmosphere and a possession over the viewer. It sucked me in, thrilled me, scared me, held my attention and kept me poised at the edge of my seat for its entire length. It also fascinated me and made me think, and not just about the Ripper. The dark side of the medical establishment, the importance of country and the lengths that one should go to protect it (how far is too far), the moral questions surrounding lobotomy, and the inherent racism of the police are all explored within the context of this film. So is the classic chestnut of evil and its qualities and ramifications. Robbie Coltrane and Ian Holm are two of the other actors in the piece that I must give high marks. They are excellent here.

See “From Hell”. No thriller in years has come close to it. And it’s a perfect movie for the upcoming Halloween season.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2001 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.