THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM
Toward the end of the 19th Century, a serial killer is terrorizing the streets of London. We’re not talking about Jack The Riper, but about the Limehouse Golem. The inhabitants of the borough believe that the mythical Jewish monster is responsible for the gruesome killings. At the same time, Elizabeth Cree, a former Music Hall star, is accused of killing her husband, a failed writer. Inspector Kildare of Scotland Yard gets both cases on his plate. And this is not because his intellect rivals that of Sherlock Holmes, but because he’s expendable in case he would fail to find the Limehouse Golem. Kildare gets to know Elizabeth and the hard life she has had. He becomes more and more convinced of her innocence and even thinks that she can lead him to the golem. But the clock is ticking. The people, the press and his superiors want to see blood. Someone will have to hang for this. The Limehouse Golem is anything but a respectful BBC drama. Director Juan Carlos Medina (Painless) plunges deep in the cesspits of Victorian London. Even Charles Dickens would have paled when confronted with the stench, the filth, the misery and the intrigues that Medina swings at us. We get to know a colorful bunch of characters who all try to survive in this cruel and unforgiving world. The theater here functions as a refuge for everybody who feels out of place in this rigid society. The Limehouse Golem is a terrific Giallo-like murder mystery with a great script by Jane Goldman (Kick Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service). Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Harry Potter) is excellent as inspector Kildare, but it’s Olivia Cooke (The Signal, Ouija) who steals the show as Elizabeth, a woman who has to pay a high price for her intelligence and ambition. Douglas Booth (Noah, Jupiter Ascending) plays Dan Leno, Elizabeth’s Joel Grey-like mentor.