*** (out of ****)
Starring Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane, and John Rhys.
Directed & written for the screen by the Hughes Brothers.
2001 R
“From Hell” is a tour of an exaggerated interpretation of Victorian London using the Jack the Ripper murders as an entry point. As a mystery, it holds our attention and we are, of course, interested to learn who the murderer is even though, as most Ripper enthusiasts will tell you, its solution does not gel with genuine facts about the case. But the real draw of the film is atmospheric: co-directors the Hughes Brothers have created an artificial Victorian London of hell-red skies, of endless night and dirt and poverty, a place drenched in deep, menacing colors, where men in top hats and white gloves prowl wet streets for clown-painted prostitutes, where ominous figures ride shadowed inside anonymous carriages. “From Hell” isn’t the first film to use the imagery and hypocrisy of the Victorian era, but it is one of the few to revel in it to such extremes; visually it’s like an evil “Moulin Rouge.” This is one of the best-looking, albeit depressing, films of 2001, and that it was snubbed for nominations in art direction and cinematography at the Oscars is a shame.
The film begins with several threads, all in some way connected to the Ripper murders. Two detectives are on the case (Johnny Depp and Robbie Coltrane). Somber and ironic-voiced Depp is addicted to opium, laudanum, and gloomy expressions, but is also clairvoyant, or at least telepathic. His visions of the murders are tinted green and seen through the eyes of the killer, who has the breathing, movements, and low stance of a beast. Coltrane is a traditional policeman whose main duty is to keep Depp’s feet on the ground. Together they find a group of prostitutes (led by Heather Graham) who are falling victim, one-by-one, to the Ripper, and there seem to be connections to doctors, secret societies, insane asylums, and maybe even the crown. Graham and the prostitutes live perhaps the worst of many awful lives, being homeless and penniless and the constant prey of thieves, pimps, and rough clientele. The scene from “From Hell” that is perhaps most burned in my memory is that of the prostitutes spending the night at a shelter. It is so crammed with inmates that they are tied sitting up to a pew and forced to sleep that way, to conserve space.
In contrast to the depravity of the London streets, pubs, brothels, and shanties is the melancholy and fermenting evil of the film’s internal spaces. Hospitals, museums, and apartments, when visited at night, are filled with no end of black spaces and shady corners. The Hughes brothers begin most of their shots long and pull in, to give us the sense that something could always be lurking, just where the characters aren’t looking. And there are the murders, ghastly and horrific, and while gallons of almost-glowing blood are splashed across the screen while we hear chopping, we are spared seeing the most lurid details.
But I’ve made “From Hell” sound like a well-crafted visit to an awful, nasty place. It’s also an exciting piece of filmmaking, with the technique of a film like “Moulin Rouge,” but harnessed more tightly and leaving the nausea to the killings and not to the camera work. “From Hell” may be brooding and a bit depressing, but it is energetic, and often tongue-in-cheek, especially in the performances of Depp and Coltrane as the detectives, and Ian Holm as the one physician willing to believe that, yes, maybe it was a doctor who committed these atrocities.
I was not surprised to find that “From Hell” is inspired by a series of comic books. If comic books are geared primarily toward teenage boys who like their music loud, I can see how both the visuals and the story elements have a brooding nature that might appeal to them. This is a grim vision, and there is a scene in which the unseen Ripper informs an unwilling lackey that they aren’t going to hell, they are already there, and we half-believe him.
Finished April 23, 2002
Copyright 2002 Friday & Saturday Night