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Opening Day
It has begun... One script review every morning for the next fifteen 'working' days (We'll take the weekend off, Thank you very much). We begin with a review of From Hell, the upcoming historical thriller directed by the Hughes Brothers. My good buddy Hollyfeld has the privilege of beginning this wonderful experience.
A Script Review 'From Hell'
"Hollyfeld, here. I have never written a script review before (film reviews are my specialty), so I hope that slack will be cut for me. If not, let it be known that I lived a good life and loved my girlfriend. Pray for my soul.
I have here a draft of From Hell, written by Terry Hayes and revised by Rafael Yglesias. For those who have not followed this film's progress or read the source material (if it’s the latter, shame on you), here is how it boils down: Johnny Depp will star as Fred Abberline, an English copper who is placed in charge of the Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel at the turn of the century. The gruesomeness of the killings is almost without precedent, and he has absolutely no leads to follow, except a hunch that the crimes have something to do with the prostitutes who have been targeted as victims. He soon finds himself falling in love with Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), one of the prostitutes, and makes it his personal mission to keep her alive. Why are the murders being committed, and what connection do they have to Mary?
From Hell is based on serialized graphic novels by comics legends Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. The series was recently compiled into a collectors’ edition that included each installment, extensively detailed footnotes on the factual basis of the story, and a short examination of the history the mystery itself. This edition is roughly the size of a small phone book, so to expect a precise adaptation of the graphic novel’s contents would have been foolhardy. Still, From Hell, which I consider to be one of the greatest artistic works in ANY medium of the past 25 years, deserves better treatment than this script provides.
This draft is not 'bad', necessarily, but it does take a complex and horrifying study of human behavior and turns it into a fairly formulaic detective/serial killer story. I was halfway through the script when before I realized that the writers were not attempting to make a movie as brilliant as its source material. Up until that point I had been EXTREMELY disappointed in what I had read, but after coming to understand the writers intentions I managed to enjoy the script for what it was trying to be. So, unless major changes have been made to the draft I am reviewing, I advise none of From Hell’s fans to expect a film of much complexity, because it seems to opt instead to provide some effective thrills and a reasonably nice love story.
There were several elements of this screenplay that were handled well, and many that would perhaps have intrigued me more had I not been such a fan of the book. Abberline is given an added subplot for the film that involves his past, and how it might interfere with his integration to upper class society. A high society girl actively pursues him while he is falling in love with Mary Kelly, an extra wrinkle in the plot that adds a degree of depth to his character. In the book, Abberline is unhappily married and at least ten years older than Depp, so these changes are understandable and work well for the film (Abberline was also an opium addict - a subplot that is completely dropped in this draft). Indeed, the issue of class conflicts becomes the primary theme of the film, whereas in the book it was hardly a factor at all. Additionally, many of the murders are handled very well and should turn out well on film. The script adeptly handles the manner in which to depict the horrific nature of the murders themselves while certainly avoiding that dreaded NC-17 rating. A slightly confusing line in the film mentions the copycat murders that occurred at the same time of the real ones, but this element of the story is never really given any screen time. I hope that in the film itself the copycat murders are either explored further or dropped entirely, as the current mention of them in From Hell would be confusing to those who know little about the history of the Jack the Ripper case.
In order to review this script with any degree of totality, however, I must take some time to discuss the identity of the killer. This should not be considered spoiler material, however, as both the book and film makes no attempt to hide his identity (or at least, the identity they decided on, since we still don’t know who the real Ripper was). In these sources, the Ripper is assumed to be Sir William Gull, the personal physician to the Queen, who is played by the great Ian Holm. (The part was originally offered to Nigel Hawthorne, who had to turn it down due to illness. I would have preferred Hawthorne, personally, but it is hard to complain about the choice of such a wonderful actor as Holm.) Gull’s character in the film, however, is rather uninteresting, which is a particular shame when one considers the complexity of his mind and motivations in the graphic novel. Gone from the text are his Masonically religious motivations for the killings - also gone are his stroke and hallucinations of an all-too real future which gave the graphic novel its universality. Instead, the film provides us with a more prototypical serial killer. Brilliant, cocky, and full of increasing bloodlust. I fear that if his depiction is not altered in later versions of this script he will be referred to as another Hannibal Lecter rip-off. This would be an unfortunate thing to happen to one of the most complex characters in comic book history.
Another problem that the script seems to have is the issue of focus. Certain characters get more screen time than they probably should, and others get much less. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Gull, who was easily the main character of the book and here has a much more supporting role. (Indeed, without his backstory in place, his identity as the killer has little relevance, except in its explanation of the surgical know-how of Jack the Ripper. In this script, any identity for the killer would have been as good as another, it seems.) Mary Kelly, whose character plays about an equal role in both texts, seems weaker (and a little less three-dimensional) in this version, and over the course of the film her character seems to go from being a lead character to a woman who has to be protected by Abberline. Abberline, in contrast, is quite well handled, although his early scenes seem to show an uncertainty on the part of the authors towards how to handle the character. Johnny Depp has found himself another good role in this one. Another potentially important character, Albert Victor (whose true identity is - somewhat inexplicably - kept secret in the film, so I won’t explain his purported historical relationship to the killings), is only seen twice, which seems like a considerable waste of an otherwise important character in the Jack the Ripper mythos. (Fans of the book should also know that the psychic, whose name escapes me now - my copy of From Hell is currently being borrowed, unfortunately - is completely absent from the film. This seems to be neither for better or worse, however.)
While this review seems largely negative, I should note that it is not. As a standard thriller, From Hell succeeds quite well. My disappointment comes from my knowledge of what might have been. There is really no reason why From Hell should not have been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (for the role of Gull) come next Oscar season. I still look forward to this film and will probably enjoy it quite a lot when it is released - I just know that, sometime in the future, a better version of From Hell can and will be made. Nonetheless, I wish the Hughes brothers (who are directing this film) the best of luck.
***EXTREME SPOILERS FOR BOOK AND FILM AHEAD***
I debated whether or not to include a discussion of the film’s ending in this review, but there has been quite a lot of discussion about the its ending in the trades lately and I felt it only fair to mention what occurs in THIS draft. (Something tells me that this may have changed in later versions of the script.) In order to discuss this, however, I must note that this section is only intended for those who have already read From Hell or are at least familiar with the history of the Jack the Ripper killings. I STRONGLY advise the rest of those out there to disregard this section and read the book. The ending isn’t bad - I’ll leave it at that.
Last chance...
There has been some talk that Mary Kelly, the last confirmed murder in the Jack the Ripper killings, LIVES in the film and gets to run away to America with Fred Abberline. To those familiar with the history of the killings and not Moore and Campbell’s From Hell, this would seem to border on blasphemy. ***(Okay, now is your last chance - if you haven’t read the book and read what follows, you will really be missing out on something special.)*** But in From Hell, Moore posits that Kelly could very well have survived. Official police reports indicated sightings of Kelly hours after her estimated time of death, and her corpse, the most mutilated of all, would have been indistinguishable to anyone attempting to identify her. Thus Moore, whose narrative never gives the slightest indication that anyone in the script is anything other than doomed, gives the readers one last surprise in From Hell’s final pages, in which the ghost of Gull sees a middle-aged woman calling to her children, whose names match those of Kelly’s friends (who were undeniably killed). The book allows us to believe that, maybe, Mary Kelly lived happily ever after (although this is largely led to the readers’ imagination). In this version of the script it is made completely clear that she does in fact survive. The difference now, however, is that the film’s Fred Abberline is free to run off with her, and so he does (although in this draft, they go to Ireland, not America). It’s a nice ending that could have been handled in a less wordy manner, and although it may seem horribly wrong to people knowing only the history of the killings it is still largely faithful to the book. Would it have been better had she not lived? I doubt it, since the film’s mood is not as tragic as the book’s. As I have stated several times earlier, this script does not fit in the horror or historical drama genres - it is a thriller. And to not have the boy and girl end up together in a standard thriller is something that, even more so than letting Mary Kelly live, borders on blasphemy. It’s a good ending. Fin."
***END EXTREME SPOILERS***
(Scoop by 'Hollyfeld'.)
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
