The Limehouse Golem **** (2016, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth, Olivia Cooke, Daniel Mays, Eddie Marsan, Sam Reid) – Movie Review

National treasure Bill Nighy is excellent as London copper John Kildare doggedly on the trail of a Victorian Limehouse serial killer. He involves himself in the fate of Lizzie Cree (Olivia Cooke), who is about to be hanged for killing her husband John (Sam Reid), who may or may not be The Limehouse Golem.

Coming over as impressively chilly and formidable in the best Victorian manner, Nighy gives a serious low key and largely emotionless performance that pays off grandly, allowing him to brood and worry away, and then grandstand in his couple of openly fired-up moments. Nighy would make a great Sherlock Holmes, wouldn’t he?

He’s matched nicely by Daniel Mays’s more vocal, more articulate turn as his police sidekick George Flood. Both characters turn out to be gay, and, remarkably, nothing much is made of it. They are just gay. Full stop. Well, that’s pretty grown-up, huh?

Dan the man as Sister Anne.

Then there is a lovely opportunity for Douglas Booth to shine as the fairly extravagant real-life music hall comedian and actor Dan Leno (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904). Liberties have been taken in the casting. Leno was nowhere near as pretty as Douglas Booth, and made a horrible looking woman in his dame roles in his popular pantomimes.

Dan Leno.

Douglas Booth.

Booth, however, makes a lovely looking woman, as lovely looking as he is a man. But that doesn’t stop him doing a spot of acting. Happily, he’s got quite a lot to do as Leno, and he does it very well. He’s quite magnetic, and quite a bit chilling too. Could he be The Limehouse Golem?

Eddie Marsan has a good role too as the creepy theatre Uncle. Could he be The Limehouse Golem? María Valverde is the wicked seeming Aveline Ortega, a femme fatale if ever there was one. Could she be The Limehouse Golem? Oh, well, there a loads of suspects. You take your pick! Perhaps Karl Marx (Henry Goodman) or English novelist George Gissing (Morgan Watkins) dunnit. Or maybe a legendary creature from dark times – the mythical so-called Golem – may be responsible. Why else would the film be called The Limehouse Golem?

Jane Goldman makes a lovely job of the screenplay, skilfully and excitingly adapting Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem. This is very good stuff. It is a murder mystery, and Ms Goldman does keep the mystery going nicely, and does successfully hide the identity of the killer till very nearly the end.

Juan Carlos Medina makes a great job of the direction – mood, pace, atmosphere, you name it, all is just right. It feels tense and taut throughout its 109 minutes. It could have run quite a bit longer, but that is only because it is so involving and enjoyable. The again, it is a lovingly crafted, brilliant looking movie, with astounding sets, expertly shot and chosen locations, and eye-boggling cinematography. It is a real pleasure to watch.

The movie is a bit grisly – it is a serial-killer horror thriller after all – but nothing gratuitous. It is 15 certificate stuff, and that’s that. Nevertheless, its doomy, all-pervasive atmosphere of horror is haunting, and likely to stay with you afterwards. ‘Quoting a line from Sweeney Todd, who may supposedly have been operating at the same time as The Limehouse Golem: ‘There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit, and its name is London.’ Room for a sequel here. How about Sweeney Todd Versus The Limehouse Golem?

Nighy inherited the role from Alan Rickman, who has to quit through declining health after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The film is dedicated to him.

Filming began in October 2015 in West Yorkshire on locations in Leeds and Keighley, and also in Manchester.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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