Wonderful character development!

Charming and brutal

A Disappointing Continuation

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Hoping to uncover the motives of Jack the Ripper, a London policeman enlists the help of a prostitute of this fanciful take on the historical murderer whose identity remains a mystery still today. The film is atmospherically shot by the reliable Peter Deming and there are some neat stylistic touches such as time lapse night to day sequence as the police discover one victim's body. Generally speaking though, this is a bit of a lacklustre affair. The film's explanation of the Ripper murders as a part of an elaborate conspiracy to hush local prostitutes never quite rings true. It is almost fascinatingly twisted enough for the lack of credibility not to matter, however, the fact that Johnny Depp's protagonist uncovers the conspiracy through clairvoyance and intuition rather than actual detective work makes it hard to buy into. Imagine if Kevin Costner's character in 'JFK' used his dreams to argue against Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and you would not be far off. The film is additionally cheapened by a romance developing between Depp and Heather Graham, cast as the prostitute who helps him. Not only does their romance do little to further the tale, the pair have few sparks between them, with each balancing Victorian accents not helping matters in the slightest. Small moments of 'From Hell' certainly work, such as Joseph Merrick making an unexpected appearance and the coins on the eyes myth, but as far as Jack the Ripper stories are concerned, 'Time After Time' and 'Murder by Decree' are far preferable motion pictures.

If you look at the box office numbers and the IMDb score you will quickly get the feeling that this was not one of Depp's most well received films.And you would be correct.But here is the B-U-T I promised you. And it goes ... BUT this is nonetheless a great performance.And that is the catch. To this reviewer,the films of Depp are somewhat of a cipher. We tend to associate him with some of his most overblown roles -- such the pirate, the boy with scissors for hands, and so on.We do this because he creates the characters so effectively. So effortlessly.But what even his most die-hard fans tend to overlook is that he creates the overblown characters so well because at his core Depp is one of the greatest living actors of our age. He simply hides it too well.What this film offers, aside from a mood and setting to die for, is a real chance to Depp to show what he can do in a serious part ... and he sells it like pumpkins at Holloween.For this reason, as a missing puzzle piece in the archive of his work, I think it deserves special merit.

There have been a lot of movies made about the story of Jack The Ripper and even though probably no one will ever know what really happened this movie is a theory like another. Pretty sure it never happened like in From Hell but it doesn't matter. It's an entertaining movie and that's all we want. Johnny Depp as Inspector Frederick Abberline is of course the main character and does a good job like we are used from him. The other actors are all good as well. It might not be the best story I ever saw from Jack The Ripper but it keeps you interested till the end. It's a dark movie, everything I would expect from London Whitechapel in that period. And for that alone you should give credit to this movie. Nice filming with nice sound effects and with good actors. What else do we need?

The Hugh's Brothers From Hell may play havoc with the facts of the actual Jack the Ripper case, and sometimes veers into syrupy sentiment, but for the most part it's a sumptuous, wonderfully spooky shocker with an austere, gloom and doom vibe and some genuinely horrifying murder scenes. I consider it a companion piece to Sleepy Hollow, as they both positively drip with atmosphere, and share the same star in Johnny Depp, as a troubled Inspector attempting to solve equally chilling homicides. Granted Sleepy Hollow is the fun one, while From Hell has almost no sense of humour and a sense of grave danger from right out of the gate. Johnny Depp plays Frederick Abberline, an opium addicted Scotland Yard inspector who's roped into an obsessive search for Jack The Ripper, aided by his sergeant Peter Godley (always nice to see Hagrid- I mean Robbie Coltrane). He gets embroiled in aristocratic corruption, and attempts to protect beautiful prostitute Mary Kelly (Heather Graham with red hair!) who fears she may be next on old Jack's list. He begins to suspect that his opium induced nightmares may provide a conduit to the killers actions, and give him something to go on. Is he losing it? Or are the drugs actually giving him metaphysical clues? Depp plays him with a forlorn, world weary malaise that's a nice front for the razor sharp intellect that made Abberline famous (he also took down the Wolfman earlier in life). Bilbo Bagg- I mean Ian Holm shows up as a renowned doctor who assists him, and Jason Flemyng as a no good coach driver, with Sophia Myles, Katrin Kartlidge and David Schofield as a grinning, evil east end pimp rounding out the roster. Now, because in real life it's an unsolved case, the Brother's Hugh's feel like they have to complete full circle, and give us a nice tidy resolution. I feel like the film should have left it open ended and never given us a who in the whodunit. It would have made the film so much more effective and eerie, but alas the studio heads must be babysat through a generic narrative to appease their financial anxiety. No matter, it's still a rich, gorgeous, bloody genre piece with an evocative, smoky London palette for this ghostly predator to stalk and slay, and for hard nosed law dogs to pursue him through the fog. Definitely a piece to check out.