The Limehouse Golam
10/09/17 Filed in: Cinema
Set in 1880 London, this film dramatises what were referred to as the Ratcliffe Highway murders (of 1811) and links these to the fabled Golam, a being from Jewish folklore that is magically created from inanimate matter, normally clay. Set in London's Limehouse district it conveys the gas lit seediness of the area, bringing to mind the equally realistic depiction in Ripper Street. The comparison with Jack the Ripper is unavoidable.
The story starts at the end, as we are told by the music hall favourite Dan Leno, who we will see play an important part in the tale. And what a tale it is. Bill Nighy plays Inspector John Kildare, taking a role that was originally written for Alan Rickman. Nighy, however, plays the character with a mix of subdued humour and professional integrity, as he pursues a killer that has eluded his boss, who has unloaded the case onto Kildare to protect his own reputation. Kildare is aided by police officer George Flood, sympathetically played by Daniel Mays.
Much of the story revolves around Music Hall, and we are introduced to Lizzie Cree, a music hall darling who is accused of murdering her husband, John Cree. Theirs was a troubled marriage, partly because of her husband's behaviour, but also because their maid was a former performer at the music hall, who had not made life easy for Lizzie. Why was she the maid? You may well ask.
Kildare becomes interested in Lizzie's case because having found a book in the British Library that the killer had defaced with a diary of the murders, a bit of detective work narrowed down the possible suspects to four people, Cree being one of them. The others were Karl Marx (bizarrely), novelist George Gissing and Dan Leno. As Kildare works through the evidence, using pure detective skills and intuition, in those days before forensic assistance, we see each of these subjects 'committing' one of the murders as Kildare explores that particular scenario.
Lizzie faces the hangman if convicted and Kildare becomes more involved with her case than that of the Golam, or so it appears to officer Flood, who makes his feelings clear on this point. But we learn of Lizzie's childhood and how she has made a success of her life against all the odds, this endearing her to Kildare, who is beginning to believe her deceased husband was in fact the killer, and proving this would provide substantial mitigation for her actions. But she seems oddly reluctant to pursue this 'way out', much to the bemusement of Kildare.
Everything ends up hinging on identifying the killer's handwriting. It is during this denouement that we are fed lots of clues, to bring out our Sherlock Holmes' instincts, but as with Holmes, what may be obvious to us is not always the same as what is obvious to him. Unless you are a Sherlock Holmes clone the final twist is likely to come as a bit of a shock.
There are wonderful performances all round in this film, with Olivia Cooke as Lizzie excelling as the poor little girl who makes her mark on history.
Lizzie faces the hangman if convicted and Kildare becomes more involved with her case than that of the Golam, or so it appears to officer Flood, who makes his feelings clear on this point. But we learn of Lizzie's childhood and how she has made a success of her life against all the odds, this endearing her to Kildare, who is beginning to believe her deceased husband was in fact the killer, and proving this would provide substantial mitigation for her actions. But she seems oddly reluctant to pursue this 'way out', much to the bemusement of Kildare.
Everything ends up hinging on identifying the killer's handwriting. It is during this denouement that we are fed lots of clues, to bring out our Sherlock Holmes' instincts, but as with Holmes, what may be obvious to us is not always the same as what is obvious to him. Unless you are a Sherlock Holmes clone the final twist is likely to come as a bit of a shock.
There are wonderful performances all round in this film, with Olivia Cooke as Lizzie excelling as the poor little girl who makes her mark on history.