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HomeNewsArchives'FROM HELL' EARNS ITS R RATING AND MIXED REVIEWS

'FROM HELL' EARNS ITS R RATING AND MIXED REVIEWS

Nov. 1, 2001 – Stumble onto a corpse in the fog … not everyone's cup of tea, but it's enough to send Johnny Depp on an adventure "From Hell," the signature used by the legendary 18th century London madman murderer Jack the Ripper.
The many-times-told tale is brought to life under the direction of an unlikely contemporary pair, Alan and Albert Hughes ("American Pimp," "Menace II Society"). To Albert, "This is a ghetto story … these characters happen to be white, but all poor people have the same problems." Alan adds, "Previous accounts of this story have been told from the eyes of the prim upper class," a standard the brothers disregard. Their perspective is that of the people who lived it, and the squalor they lived it in.
Inspector Frederick Abberline (Depp) ventures into the murky venues of London's back mews as well as the equally murky venues of his mind, addled by an opium addiction. He believes his hallucinations aid him in his search for the elusive and maniacal killer whose grisly methods of killing suggest a sophisticated surgical skill.
Jack the Ripper, in case you have forgotten, was the infamous killer of prostitutes in 1888 Whitechapel London, a killer never caught, and never entirely forgotten.
Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) is a "bawdy, impoverished and touchingly independent" prostitute who finally breaks down and aids Abberline in his search. One critic calls her performance "the most radiant since 'Boogie Nights.'"
One reviewer labeled the movie's slightly more than two hours a "gore-fest," but another called it "an entrancingly literate mystery … a horror film of genuine artistry and excitement," although the review says the Hughes brothers "are hardly ones to step back from operatic mayhem."
Ian Holmes plays Sir William Gull, a physician to the royal family, who along with Robby Coltrane as the good Sgt. Godley keeps Abberline on track in his crusade to catch the sadistic and sinister killer.
The film is rated R for strong violence, gore, sexuality, language and drug content, and that must about cover R ratings. It is playing at Market Square East.

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