[yasr_overall_rating]
A series of murders has shaken the community to the point where people believe that only a legendary creature from dark times – the mythical so-called Golem – must be responsible.
“The Limehouse Golem” could have been one of the best murder-mysteries ever put on film. It is filled with top-notch performances by the entire cast, deft direction by Juan Carlos Medina, and its setting, Limehouse in Victorian London, radiates an atmosphere filled with genuine fear and dread as the city falls prey to a series of gruesome murders. Inspector John Kildare of Scotland Yard (the always watchable Bill Nighy), is assigned to the case as the disturbing and horrendous killings continue. While investigating some of the previous murders and their locations, Kildare becomes intrigued by a case that is transpiring at the same time, that of Lizzie Cree (Olivia Cooke), an upper-class housewife who is on trial for supposedly poisoning to death her husband, John Cree (Sam Reid), a well-known author and playwright.
After visiting the local library, Kildare discovers a hidden diary in its reading room that was left by the killer which includes graphic details of their twisted thoughts and the eventual detailed account of each murder, which have since been likened to the mythical Golem, a creature in Jewish folklore that is a “body without a soul” and who serves its creator. On the date of the last entry into the diary, four people were listed as having visited the reading room, one of them having been John Cree but with him now being deceased, Kildare decides to visit Cree’s widow Lizzie, who is in jail, awaiting the outcome of her trial. The two quickly bond and she tells him about her hard life as a child with an abusive mother and her eventual move to London in the hopes of becoming an actress.
Kildare gradually begins to believe that Lizzie was framed for her husband’s murder but in order to try and discover the identity of the real perpetrator, he must first visit the theatre where she worked as an actress and meet with her co-workers, in the hopes of identifying the true culprit. Kildare’s investigation into the Limehouse murders gradually begin to intertwine with Lizzie’s trial and with time running out for her, especially after the jury finds her guilty of her husband’s demise, with her sentence of death to be carried out the next morning, Kildare must unequivocally prove her innocence while bringing to justice, the real killer.
While the events herein are fictitious, the film’s timeframe is set before that of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who would terrorize London in 1888. The movie sets up the story and characters perfectly, and as Kildare begins to suspect the many different people he comes into contact with as being the Limehouse Golem murderer, as he reads the grisly details of each homicide from the diary, the film cleverly shows us, in Kildare’s mind, each suspect carrying out the sickening disembowelment of their victims, according to the diary, and this forces the viewer to truly examine the facts that are presented to them in regards to each suspect. While the makings of a truly terrific whodunnit were all in place, I couldn’t help but predict the so-called shocking revelation of the killer and was sorely disappointed when it proved true. As the story builds up each suspect to the point that it makes each of them more than capable of having carried out the heinous acts, the movie leaves lingering doubts in regards to certain characters but one, in particular, is portrayed a certain way when in actual fact, they are the exact opposite, and that is where the finale implodes in on itself. Instead of leaving out some this person’s characteristics, small idiosyncrasies that if you’re watching closely enough, you will pick up on, it puts them up on the screen for everyone to see, and when the big reveal is finally divulged, in the back of your mind, you knew it was them all along.
Bill Nighy is always a joy to behold and here, both he and Olivia Cooke do some of their best work. With a terrific supporting cast, and Victorian locales and sets to die for, I feel that I should give “The Limehouse Golem” a higher rating but with having solved the mystery early on, something I feel the filmmakers could have easily prevented with slight changes in their storytelling techniques, while I was personally disappointed with the final outcome, I would still highly recommend it. After all, I know people who said they figured out the ending of “The Sixth Sense” in the opening scene, something I never did. So maybe this is my Sixth Sense.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD November 7th
