Off the Shelf: From Hell
A Gory Look Into Jack the Ripper Lore With ‘From Hell’
Out of curiosity and sheer boredom, I’ve decided to start up a new column that will run once every week or two here at Reelloop. In Off the Shelf, I’ll randomly pick a DVD or Bluray out of my collection and write a few paragraphs of random thoughts about whatever film my finger lands on. Hopefully I can make some interesting points and draw your eye to a film you might not have seen before!
This week’s film: The Hughes Brothers’ From Hell.
While I didn’t review this month’s new Hughes Brothers release The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic action film starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, it’s worth noting a few things about my experience with the movie. While I found Eli to essentially be Post-Apocalyptic Tropes: The Motion Picture, soullessly deriving elements from The Road Warrior, Waterworld and every other film of its ilk under the sun, I really dug the aesthetic. If a Fallout film is ever produced, this is how it would look.
The Hughes Brothers know how to shoot a saturated, gritty film. Eli feels like something out of a graphic novel; in the case of their From Hell, an adaptation of the Alan Moore work, this is apparent from start to finish. The story of Jack the Ripper, as told from the perspective of Johnny Depp’s Inspector Abberline, is conveyed with appropriate filth. The film thrives on grue. Grue, grue and more grue.
I have a lot of respect for a film that’s willing to take chances, something that Eli doesn’t but From Hell does adequately. Rare is a leading hero who’s addicted to opiates; stealing a page from Sherlock Holmes’ book, Abberline is a deeply flawed and brilliant man. Like so many of Depp’s films, he is the beating heart of the event. Whether you hate or love the rest of the film, you must admit that his character is riveting. Hilariously, he could do this sort of work in his sleep, meaning that enjoyable yet disposable films like Secret Window and Once Upon a Time in Mexico are a dime a dozen in his filmography.
Also rare is Heather Graham’s Mary Kelly, a female hero/damsel in distress who also happens to be a street walker. While I have a general distaste for Graham (one that is completely unfair and irrational), she’s good in the role; if only she were given a little more to do. While I’ve never read the graphic novel, I’ve heard that amongst the large changes made for adaptation, removed were the lesbian aspects of her character. That’s too bad, because it would have lent depth to what is otherwise a two-dimensional splatter-fest.
But I enjoy From Hell for being just that. I like indulging in the gory murders at hand and watching the untouchably talented Ian Holm let loose in a demonic role. It’s certainly a film for acquired tastes, however: the violence is oppressive, the humor sparse. It’s unrelentingly single-minded; a trait that works to the Hughes Brothers’ benefit here but not in their latest outing.
Let’s hope they’re headed in a more sophisticated direction after The Book of Eli. They have the visual side down, now to marry it to a intriguing and dense narrative.
