Depp and disembowelment in 'From Hell'

COURTESY YORK SQUARE CINEMA For Depp, we'll go to hell and back.

The prostitutes of London's Whitechapel District have been turning up dead on various sidewalks after being systematically murdered and horribly mutilated. Inspector Abberline, who is famous for his opium-induced visions of crime scenes, is convinced he can reveal the killer's true identity. The evidence leads the inspector to Mary Kelly, whose friends are being killed off one by one, and the unlikely couple works to piece together the clues that eventually bring the killer—and a royal conspiracy—to justice.

The plot summary ends here because From Hell is not about plot, and to the directors' credit, it is not really their fault. The chemistry between Depp and Graham (or Depp and any living or immobile object, for that matter) overwhelms any reservations the viewer may have regarding plausibility and adherence to historical truth. Did Mary Kelly really participate in the investigation and hook up with the dashing detective to boot? Probably not, but she does look damn good on screen. While it is curious that Mary and the detective are the only two well-groomed, well-spoken, and well-proportioned characters walking the London streets, by the time the audience realizes the directors' objective, the actors' roles begin to make more sense.

If the acclaimed director of Requiem For A Dream, Darren Aronofsky, were making an Oscar Wilde re-write of a Sherlock Holmes novel, From Hell probably closely approximates the end result. The blood-red London skyline and foreboding music that greets the audience in the first frames of the film make it sufficiently clear that the Hughes brothers are less concerned with telling a story than with conveying a mood. The cinematography is laden with gritty, startling footage that lures the audience deep into the psyches of the villain and his vigilant pursuer. As Inspector Abberline revels in his hallucinations after "chasing the dragon" (a euphemism for smoking opium), the viewer is drawn into the dark shadows of his mind, where the inspector's tragic past duels with his present moral obligations to combat evil. Abberline emerges torn between ending his own misery by committing suicide or working to end the miseries of others. By the time Jack is working on his third or fourth victim, the audience is already riveted—seduced not so much by the storyline as by the aura of the film itself.

While intricately constructed, From Hell is certainly not without faults. Its disregard for a realistic, flowing plot is less than subtly manifested by the disjointed editing and philosophical one-liners uttered by virtually every actor in the film, including prostitutes sitting around a dining table to muse over the meaning in life and a villain who pontificates on his philanthropic role to humanity. The movie's jolted presentation may be partially explained by the fact that it is an adaptation of a novel of the same title by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, who paint the story in the same bloody, gory setting as the film. But bloody and gory is somewhat of an understatement. The number of coroners and policemen in the movie vomiting at the scenes of the crime are quite extraordinary. From Hell is not for the faint of heart. Even the 6'6" football player I was sitting next to squirmed in his seat during some of the more gruesome scenes, as when Jack the Ripper makes a disgusting mess all over the back alleys while cutting out his victims' various organs with surgical precision.

The directors try so hard to impress the gravity of the film upon its audience that many scenes lose their severity to the point of being comical. Must the coroner really collapse onto the ground with all the drama of a six-year-old child upon seeing the bloody victim? Still, as long as Inspector Abberline (or as I like to call him, Johnny) keeps his cool and looks that suave, this movie is worth seeing. If you are looking for an hour-and-a-half of withdrawal from the real world with a few pretty faces added in for good measure, From Hell certainly delivers. If you're really interested in finding out the story behind Jack the Ripper, try your nearest public library.

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