In the interests of full disclosure, I should state that I'm an almost frighteningly evangelical fan of the writer Alan Moore, who with talented artist Eddie Campbell made "From Hell" one of the most talked-about graphic novels of recent years. So I was approaching this film with an unusual degree of wariness.
It might take you a while to get over the shock of Johnny Depp's slightly broad barrow-boy accent. Having based his "Sleepy Hollow" accent on "Murder She Wrote" (period Angela Lansbury), he's now immersed himself in a rich combination of "Mary Poppins'" Dick Van Dyke and EastEnders' Frank Butcher. As always, though, he delivers a convincing performance.
I'm not so sure about Heather Graham, however - it's partly the fault of the script but her Victorian prostitute with the inevitable heart of gold was a little too much "Allo deary, want a good time?" for my taste - a little unsophisticated for a movie which is otherwise up to modern speed.
That said, the film does deliver more than your standard Jack the Ripper adaptation. Victorian London is recreated brilliantly in a kind of pulp noir sense, shot in a wonderfully gloomy way like a Daguerreo-type come to life. And plot-wise it's not so much a whodunit as a somewhat meatier critique of Victorian values and the class system. Too long perhaps, and definitely not as compelling as the graphic novel, but all in all a good night out.
"From Hell" is an entertainingly different addition to what's already a bewilderingly varied Jack the Ripper genre.
