Sherlock Holmes meets Jack The Ripper! No doubt this potentially exciting prospect drew so many top notch actors to the project. Masonic intrigue! A Royal conspiracy! What more could any film fan want? Sadly, the rich promise of this plot is very poorly realised. It looks atmospheric, at least to start with, with the pea-souper fogs and a good feel for how life in the more deprived parts of London must have been in the late nineteenth century. The fogs soon become tiresome (you've seen one fog you've seen them all), serving to hide the none-too-plausible plot more than anything else. The hackneyed music does not help, and gives the impression of a dated 1970s cheap TV thriller.
The film deteriorates as it proceeds. At first, the plot is interesting enough to sustain the attention and the audience can delight in spotting the succession of famous faces. This makes us overlook the mundane dialogue, sometimes muffled by poor recording on street scenes, and the bad acting such dialogue creates. But when this wears off, the routine writing and general lack of direction become very wearisome.
The denouement, which takes up the final 15 minutes, is as boring and static as can be imagined, although most viewers will have switched off by then. This is a long and detailed explanation of the plot. Any writer worth his salt knows such lengthy explanation have no place at the end, being very anti-climatic. This film should actually be shown to students to demonstrate how not to write.
(slight spoiler) Not only is this denouement boring but it fails to really resolve anything. Holmes' involvement in this matter has not managed to save anyone's life, but has lost a few; that the murders will now stop is not done to him, they would have stopped with the death of Kelly anyway; the child was already guaranteed safety (if I understood it correctly). All we have is the possible resignation of the PM, whose involvement is minimal at least.
Sorry for such a low grade but with the cast and the premise this should have been at least good. A waste of the actors' talents and the audience's time.
The film deteriorates as it proceeds. At first, the plot is interesting enough to sustain the attention and the audience can delight in spotting the succession of famous faces. This makes us overlook the mundane dialogue, sometimes muffled by poor recording on street scenes, and the bad acting such dialogue creates. But when this wears off, the routine writing and general lack of direction become very wearisome.
The denouement, which takes up the final 15 minutes, is as boring and static as can be imagined, although most viewers will have switched off by then. This is a long and detailed explanation of the plot. Any writer worth his salt knows such lengthy explanation have no place at the end, being very anti-climatic. This film should actually be shown to students to demonstrate how not to write.
(slight spoiler) Not only is this denouement boring but it fails to really resolve anything. Holmes' involvement in this matter has not managed to save anyone's life, but has lost a few; that the murders will now stop is not done to him, they would have stopped with the death of Kelly anyway; the child was already guaranteed safety (if I understood it correctly). All we have is the possible resignation of the PM, whose involvement is minimal at least.
Sorry for such a low grade but with the cast and the premise this should have been at least good. A waste of the actors' talents and the audience's time.