The Limehouse Golem

2017

Johnny's comments:

The Limehouse Golem is a mystery thriller where Lizzie (Olivia Cooke) is accused of poisoning her writer husband John Cree (Sam Reid) and is on trial for his murder. While investigating a series of murders called The Limehouse Golem Murders because they were seemingly committed by a Golem, police detective John Kildare (Bill Nighy) comes across evidence that he thinks implicates Lizzie's dead husband as the murderer. He talks to Lizzie, who tells him how she met her husband, through a music hall run by her uncle (Eddie Marsan) who helps her out after her mother's death. The music hall's star is Leno (Douglas Booth) who seems to run the show and allows Lizzie to start an act on the show after the death of one of the actors, much to the chagrin of Spanish acrobat Aveline (María Valverde), who while not chiding Lizzie, is attempting to get noticed by Cree as she has a crush on him. But Cree's gaze turns to Lizzie and after a terrible show, Cree comforts Lizzie and they begin a relationship eventually marrying although the marriage doesn't go well, so much so that Lizzie hires Aveline to be their help including for her 'wifely duties'. Kildare continues to gather evidence that clears others (including bafflingly Karl Marx!) and comes closer to implicating Cree and maybe even clearing Lizzie of his murder even after she is found guilty and set to hang. Except ...

Not bad mystery with a decent twist ending and Olivia Cooke is quite good as the young woman who has gotten herself into a horrible predicament but is accepting of her fate even if she doesn't deserve it.

Maria Valverde film clips (collages below)