Review of The Raven (2012) by Ben S — 11 Jan 2013
Run of the mill gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the acclaimed poet Edgar Allan Poe in the last days preceding his death. Past glories behind him, the washed up Poe lives hand to mouth in 19th century Baltimore begging for scraps of newspaper work and drinking whatever he can lay his hands on.
.... until a series of ritual murders that bear an eerie resemblance to those featured in his own work begin to take place. Promptly arrested as a suspect, he is deemed not capable of committing such gruesome crimes and pledges to help the young Detective Fields find the culprit, but in doing so becomes yet more personally woven into the mystery.
Although unremarkable this is still a watchable film with a few nice moments but, taken as a whole, is too mediocre to live long in the memory. Not quite kitsch enough to fall into the 'so bad it's good' camp, but not original enough to set it apart from other gothic thrillers it simply goes about its business, hits all the expected marks and ends.
The set-up has some potential - alternate history can be a greatly entertaining device when done well, leaving an audience asking "could that have happened?" - but 'The Raven' fails to have any real fun with it, taking itself too seriously and playing out like any number of other films.
It's screaming out for a scene stealing performance from Cusack, of which he is more than capable, but it fails to materialise as he languidly dials it in - admittedly with a few touches of his deadpan charm.
The support cast including Brendon Gleeson is solid enough, but it often feels like little more than a high budget TV production. This isn't helped by the derivative production design, bland musical score and just flat general direction that offers zero flair or originality.
Not entirely without merit, it offers 2 hours of passable distraction, but this is a disappointingly lazy genre film, wasting a few interesting ingredients that could have made a great gothic B-movie if handled with more attention and love.
This review of The Raven (2012) was written by Ben S on 11 Jan 2013.
The Raven has generally received mixed reviews.
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