Review of The Raven (2012) by Steve U — 03 May 2014

THE RAVEN is a standard but effective crime thriller infused with historical fiction. It pays respect to Edgar Allan Poe's legacy and acts like a love letter to his works, pitting the author against a serial killer who draws inspiration for his crimes from the author's grisliest stories. When the Baltimore Police draft Poe into the investigation, the author finds himself in a game of cat and mouse with a killer whose crimes he can predict--because he dreamt them up in the first place. It's a strange scenario, taking a real historical personage like Poe and inserting him into a fictional murder plot. It shouldn't work, but it does, thanks to some decent screenwriting, and while the film isn't perfect, it hits the right notes with style, good period detail, and an earnest (if workmanlike) approach to the author's gruesome stories. It even offers a poignant and powerful suggestion for the reason behind the author's mysterious last days. All in all, if you're expecting Masterpiece Theatre, forget it. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a simple murder mystery that ends up a lot classier than it ought to be, THE RAVEN delivers.

The acting, though it ignores the old-fashioned idiom of the rest of the film, is uniformly excellent. John Cusack makes a surprisingly endearing Poe. While he never casts off the "John Cusack-isms" of his modern roles, he handles well the weight of Poe's God-given genius that, as one character puts it, is "drenched in misery." Luke Evans, as Detective Fields, could have played more to the period as well (he squints so often, it's like he's Batman). But these are minor quibbles; neither actor distracts from the main mystery at hand. The only things that are blatant weaknesses are missteps of editing and foreshadowing. When the killer sneaks into a ball and abducts a key character, it's so poorly filmed and edited that you can't understand what's happening. One moment a victim's standing next to Poe, and the next moment, there's been an abduction...which wouldn't be a problem, except you end up thinking Poe is the abductor. The film's next problem, foreshadowing, is that the killer, when eventually revealed, doesn't have any scenes early on that establish him as a viable suspect. His first line is literally when he is revealed as the killer. (Don't worry... even my giving his gender away still won't spoil it for you.) A killer like this needs to have more presence at the beginning, especially when the ways he adapts Poe's stories into actual murders are so satisfying. As a gothic literature enthusiast, I knew as much about them as Poe did and therefore had to solve the crimes with as much as he had to go on. So I liked the plotting and craved more clues, but really, give me a fair shake on which characters I have to consider...

FAIR WARNING: For those who don't like gore, you do see a man get chopped in half, swipe by ever-gruesome swipe, but it's the only major murder we see, which sets the tone for just how much Poe's enemy means business. Even when we do finally see him confront his antagonist, it's creepier because of the ferocity of that first murder. However, if you can get past that, you might find yourself enjoying this gothic period thriller. Mercifully, they avoid showing any of the ghastlier murders from Poe's stories, but I still was on the edge of my seat numerous times. Ultimately it's a neat little film, not a masterpiece but a piece of fan-fiction that's both well-written and respectful of Poe as a writer and a man. To that end, I don't understand the critics blasting this as lousy filmmaking: haven't they read Poe? The guy invented the detective novel, but he wasn't exactly regarded as high-class literature. To criticize a movie about Poe being locked in a murder mystery of his own making seems then to be somewhat like the pot calling a Raven, well, black. The one thing I agree with them on, however, is the choice of fonts in the credits. Who the heck thought "futuristic swordblades" would bring Edgar Allan Poe to mind? Fire that printset designer, whoever it was.