The legend of Jack the Ripper has always been one of the darkest and most enticing murder mysteries - the chilling tale of one of mankind's worst serial murderers, wreaking havoc and destruction in the nightmarish streets of Victorian London. Formally, the puzzle has never been solved, but the 'truth' as depicted in From Hell, less a couple of romanticised details, of course, seems now to be popularly regarded as exactly that, with the monarchy itself and certainly the upper echelons of the state intimately implicated in the matter. It's certainly a romantically appealing ideal of corruption at the highest levels, although a quick look-see at http://www.movieforum.com/features/festivals/tiff01/reviews/fromhell.shtml reveals "The ultimate identity of the Ripper conforms to the popular Buckingham Palace/Freemasons conspiracy theory, which I thought had more or less been disproved by Donald Rumbelow's excellent "The Complete Jack The Ripper Casebook". I'm sure that the literary-minded Moore intended his interpretation as a political allegory/rant against the corruption of Mother England -- on film, the twist comes as a something less than a shock, in what John Carpenter calls an "Oh my God, it's Harry!" moment (for the record, it's not Harry)."

I'd heard the story previously, and it was depicted at least once in a whole host of recreations of the Ripper legend, but it didn't make this particular depiction any the less impressive.

Depp dominates much of the screen time and his playing of the detective inspector pursuing one of England's most notorious villains as a dug addict with visions and an eye for detail is in keeping with many of his former roles, usually dark and flawed and off beat, like those in Edward Scissor Hands and Sleepy Hollow. The Depp look, all smouldering sexuality and deep, dark, haunted eyes, has burned through many memorable cinema epics and generally guarantees popular success. And so it is here, with his moodily righteous lead performance.

It's a classic and expertly drawn tale of thrills and suspense, although always smacking a little of form at the expense of substance. The settings are concurrently sumptuous and seedy, just as Victorian London was, linking so closely the back street world of prostitution and villainy and the self seeking opulence of the Freemasons. From Hell is richly drawn and visually stunning, a morbidly entertaining Gothic horror story, which is never less than absorbing.

There is little moral distance between the forces of good and evil as the demon ripper explodes upon the diseased world of a corrupt London society at the end of the Nineteenth Century, and the powers that be are every bit as threatening and indefensible as those of the protection racketeers, and both fearsomely persecute the prostitutes and ne'er do wells who populate the capital. There are no rights and wrongs on show here, only the acrid whiff of power, corruption and lies, as the status quo keeps a vice like grip on the unwashed masses, using and abusing them as the mood takes them.

I'm not absolutely convinced by From Hell, and there are certainly a few downsides, but on the whole this is a glorious and satisfying thriller which never allows the pace to slacken. It's blissfully entertaining, and thoroughly gripping and well worth a viewing.