It’s been tough for us fanboys during a lot of 2007. While we’ve had a few real triumphs with 300, Grindhouse (even if it failed to find an audience), and Hot Fuzz, for every great film it seems like there’s been at least five disappointments. Marvel Comics properties have completely struck out all year, with Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer being complete duds, and Spider-Man 3 shoehorning the “Venom” storyline and crowding the film with villains to the point of over-saturation. With other flicks like the third Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers being only mildly entertaining at best, it’s made the good films such as Live Free or Die Hard and The Bourne Ultimatum stand out that much more as quality pictures.
Still, overall 2007 has kind of been a wash so far, despite the Movie Summer being on pace to becoming the most financially successful ever. On the horizon though, there’s a great many projects that may just bring home the gold after so many false starts. Summer 2008 looks like it may end up being one of the best ever, with The Dark Knight, Iron Man and the fourth Indiana Jones film on the horizon. Heck, even what I’ve heard about the second Hellboy movie sounds amazing.
Then in 2009, we may end up getting one of the best geek movies ever; Zach Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s epic miniseries Watchmen. For those that have never read it (and shame on you by the way), Watchmen may just be the greatest work ever created about superheroes. Taking inspiration from an episode of The Outer Limits, Moore crafted the ultimate story about human weakness, even if you’re wearing tights and a cape. A murder mystery that culminates with the fate of humanity in the balance, the graphic novel is a work on par with almost every novel I’ve ever read, and somehow Snyder has to find a way to do the book justice in around two and a half hours.
On top of that, the odds are against him in a lot of ways. While Snyder was very successful at adapting Frank Miller’s work earlier this year, those that have tried to adapt Alan Moore’s work have seemed to run into a lot more trouble and probably frustration. Only the Wachowski Brothers’ adaptation of Moore’ V For Vendetta has come even remotely close to living up to its source material.
The same can’t really be said for The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, which picked and chose the things that it liked about Alan Moore’s stirring and most action packed adventure story, and then sloppily added its own elements to come in with a PG-13 blockbuster that ended up satisfying no one. To be fair, to have just adapted the original graphic novel could not have resulted in a PG-13 movie, but on the other hand, the work would have much more integrity. Then there’s the most frustrating of the Moore adaptations; From Hell.
From Hell Starring Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane, and, Jason Flemyng
While I’m often one to defend film adaptations and the desire of film makers to create their own unique visions, From Hell seems to be a special case. While many films at least try to capture the spirit of the book they’re adapting, even if it has to be in an abridged form, From Hell is a film that nearly changes the format of its original work entirely. To fully explain this I’m probably going to have to go into spoilers, and they may actually turn up from here on out in this column. So if you want to see the movie beforehand I’ll wait for you to go rent it still waiting and we’re back. Alright so now that that’s out of the way, we can get back to the column, which again will contain spoilers.
The biggest difference between this film and its source material is that the film is what is traditionally known as a “whodunnit?”. The film stars Johnny Depp as real life Inspector Frederick Abberline, only instead of the hard working, very British everyman that Abberline was in real life and is portrayed as in the original book, Depp’s Abberline is a flamboyant Scotland Yard detective who experiences psychic visions, especially during his frequent opium trips. When a number of prostitutes are being executed in particularly grizzly fashion on the streets of London, Abberline’s visions help to try and catch the notorious serial killer who would eventually be known as Jack the Ripper.
In Moore’s original work we know within the first third of the story not only who Jack the Ripper is, but why he’s doing what he’s doing. In the original graphic novel it isn’t Abberline, but the killer himself who is the main character of From Hell. In both cases, the killer is the Royal Physician, Doctor William Gull. Eliminating the prostitutes in order to conceal a scandal involving Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence who was heir to the throne of England and a shop maid he had secretly married and fathered a child with, Gull descends into madness, believing he is doing the work of God in order to save the Empire. The depiction of this descent in Moore’s work is a staggeringly meticulous achievement. With each kill, Gull becomes more and more obsessed, with the final kill becoming an almost religious experience. By changing the story’s structure to the degree that it does, the film loses this very important theme, giving us only a glimpse into the psyche of this man.
With the script that he’s given, Ian Holm does a fantastic job as Gull. By day, his grandfather like persona is personable and lovable, making it quite heartbreaking for those that don’t know that he is the mysterious killer. It just would have been so fascinating to watch a superior actor like Holm really sink his teeth into a role such as Gull as it is on the page. This is a man that has searched in futility for his purpose in life, though he has met with great success in his chosen profession. It is not until he is charged with his assignment by Queen Victoria herself that he finally realizes what his life’s work really is. All this is lost within the film’s running time.
Another aspect of the story that is merely hinted at is the role the Freemasons play in these proceedings. While the Hughes Brothers do a good job at creating the necessary atmosphere required to give the cult an imposing presence, we’re never really clued in on who these people really are and why they do what they do. Moore does what he can to completely immerse in Masonic ritual and their world in general, creating an almost unstoppable air about them, which makes Abberline’s struggle to find the truth that much more inspiring.
Watching it now, From Hell just seems like a film full of missed opportunities. Even if the film had tried to really just put you in that world, such as the way David Fincher did in Zodiac, the film would come closer to realizing the original vision of the book. Fincher cultivated his 1970’s look and feel throughout Zodiac to really make you feel like you were there as the events took place. From Hell is cheated by its desire to be a much more commercial project, such as with the inclusion of its flashy, MTV-style editing in its dream sequences, a routine action climax, and the needless love story between Abberline and Heather Graham’s Mary Kelly, that seems to be just forced into the film with little subtlety.
Graham herself is a bit of a distraction on screen, as she’s obviously much more attractive than any of the other actresses cast in the film, and feels very out of place. They don’t seem to try very hard to ugly her up either, which manages to take away from the elements of atmosphere that the film makers do get right with the movie’s excellent costuming and sets. The actress’ British accent is less than spectacular. I realize that the studio probably needed a name actress in the role of Mary Kelly, the most important of the prostitute roles, but were there no actual British actresses available?
Depp does quite a bit better here, making Abberline a flawed, but likable character. It was a good move to pair him with Robbie Coltrane as Sergeant Peter Godley. Coltrane’s character is actually closer in spirit to the Abberline of the comics, and the pairing of the two actors in this picture gives them a very Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson dynamic that is actually quite effective on its own. The two seem to have quite good chemistry and make for an interesting screen pair.
It’s points like these that make From Hell a good movie, but its desire to be a box office hit is what keeps it from being a great one. If the film makers had had more faith in its original source material, the movie could stand now as one of the best Comic book adaptations ever. Instead, we’re left with a largely forgettable film that plays too closely to Hollywood convention. Hopefully, with Zach Snyder’s Watchmen on the horizon, we can keep going in the right direction, similarly to that of his 300 and the adaptation of V For Vendetta. It’s a daunting task, and hopefully the film will at least remotely resembled Alan Moore’s original vision.
Picture Credits: filmhai.de, impawards.com, wikipedia.org
