Inspector Abberline: Johnny Depp	Mary Kelly: Heather Graham
Sir William Gull: Ian Holm	Peter Godley: Robbie Coltrane
Dark Annie: Katrin Cartlidge	Paul Rhys
Sir Charles Warren: Ian Richardson	Cinematographer: Peter Deming
Directors: Albert & Allen Hughes

Story Line: Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) has the assignment to find the killer who makes each succeeding murder of a prostitute in the Whitechapel district of London, more gruesome than the last. He even resorts to the excision of organs from the body, with surgical precision, and it becomes clear that the murderer is an educated man and not an Indian with scalping skills or a Jewish meat butcher, as some authorities would have the public believe. Our killer is someone with a thorough knowledge of human anatomy and may even be a surgeon. The question is why would such a person want to kill prostitutes?

Inspector Abberline enjoys his opium and absinthe cocktails, which send him into a mind altering dream like state in which he has visions of how to solve crimes; sometimes even visualizing the crime scene. It's this skill that gets him assigned to the case. His assistant Godley (Robbie Coltrane) often keeps the Inspector out of trouble with his superiors but at times that is not possible.

A number of nefarious fellows come on the scene as potential killers. One is a weasely creep who wants protection payments from a group of five prostitutes, which includes Dark Annie (Katrin Cartlidge) and Mary Kelly (Heather Graham). Another is a team of surgeons who are skilled in the art of lobotomies; and there is Sir William Gull (Ian Holm) who is a retired surgeon.

When one of the prostitutes is literally taken "off the job," given a lobotomy and institutionalized, Mary keeps the woman's infant child, to protect her. It seems that people in high places don't want the mother to talk or the bloodline of the child to be known. Mary and her group of five were witnesses to a marriage that must never come to light.

Abberline's boss, Sir Charles Warren (Ian Richardson), is supportive of the efforts to find the killer until the investigation gets too close to the truth. He even insists that a chalk message at the scene of a murder not be photographed though it seems to be a major clue, because if the word got out, there would be an uprising if Jews were suspected of committing the crimes. Does he really care what people think of Jews or it that a ruse?

Tell Me More About It: The film is exceptionally good looking and well made. It has a gothic feel and the murders are committed more in your imagination rather than stabbings and heads being severed. This R rated film has less gore than the PG-13 movie The Patriot (a very subjective observation). The use of drugs is explicit and the sex has more to do with push up bras than prostitutes humping in the bed or in a dark alley.

From Hell is an exciting murder mystery with a number of hints about who dun it to keep things interesting every step of the way. Depp gives his expected, outstanding and other worldly performance. Ian Holm, Katrin Cartlidge, Robbie Coltrane and Ian Richardson and some of the unnamed prostitutes give the film an edge that takes us back a century in time. Heather Graham is OK and I'm pleased to see her doing something beyond Say it Isn't So and more along the lines of Sidewalks of New York. She is, however, a little too pretty, sophisticated, charming and clean for a street ho. Katrin Cartlidge would have been a better Mary. It's a little bit of a stretch to envision the Inspector and the whore Mary falling in love, but stranger things have happened.

It's always gratifying to see actors, writers and directors grow; and certainly the Hughes Brothers are doing that. They have not made a lot of films but each one is very good. The two could be a Stanley Kubrick in the making, as he only made 13 films during a long, respected and controversial career. Since 1993, they've made Menace II Society, Dead Presidents and American Pimp. From Hell is more sophisticated while still retaining a dark tone that is not depressing. Peter Deming as cinematographer has outdone himself with From Hell and Mulholland Drive. It's clearly Oscar caliber work.

Although From Hell is based on a comprehensive novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, with the focus on a real killer in 1888, the film is not trying to be a JFK and convince us how it really happened. That said, when you realize who the killer is you are faced with an interesting hypothesis.

Jack the Ripper may have been crazy, but he was acting out of logic (his own to be sure) and for a reason other than wanting to kill a few prostitutes. The fog in London finally is lifted on the murder mystery and on the Hughes Brothers being great directors.

Johnny Depp: Blow	Heather Graham: Sidewalks of New York
Ian Holm: The Fellowship of the Ring	Robbie Coltrane: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Katrin Cartlidge: No Man's Land	Paul Rhys: King Lear - TV
Ian Richardson: 102 Dalmatians	Peter Deming: Mulholland Drive
Albert & Allen Hughes: American Pimp