The Raven

Rated: R

Run time: 1 hr 43 mins

Starring: John Cusack and Luke Evans

First let me say, I am a fan of John Cusack movies. But in The Raven as Edgar Allen Poe, he exceeded even my expectations. This has to be one of Cusack’s best performances to date. That being said, I was a little disappointed in the movie as a whole.

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.” The opening line of “The Raven”, fits the setting for the movie. It is dark and gloomy, which is probably by design but I feel the movie would have been better served by a little color at least. The movie is set in the final days of Poe’s life and revolves around his mysterious death. I think the writers did an awesome job writing a story that builds a scenario that could explain Poe’s final days. Poe was one of the first American writers to try and make a living solely on his writing and so suffered financially. John Cusack portrays Poe as a dark, alcoholic and vain writer trying to make ends meet. And that’s when things begin to fall apart for our intrepid author. A demented serial killer starts murdering people based on Poe’s stories. The police detective Fields, Luke Evans, initially suspects Poe of the murders. After dismissing him as a suspect, Fields asks Edgar to help in trying to capture the killer. Then Poe’s fiancé is kidnapped and the only way to save her is to engage in a battle of wits with the serial killer. He begins leaving clues that only Poe can figure out. This half of the movie is a little slow. I was expecting more of a detective story, seeing the clues and watch them being deciphered by Edgar and the detective. The director seemed to spend too long setting up the story. After this, things started to pick up quickly. One clue leads to another and then another. There is one pretty grisly scene, I don’t really need to tell you where it is – you’ll know it when you see it, so if you’re squeamish close your eyes for half a minute or so. In the second half of the movie the pace begins to feel more frantic as the end grows ever nearer. There is a pretty good twist to the movie. I am usually good at figuring out the mystery well before the reveal, this time though I barely figured it out before our hero.

If you are a John Cusack fan, then for nothing else go watch it for his performance as Edgar Allen Poe, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If, however, you're not a fan I'd recommend waiting for the DVD release so you can skip the boring parts. “Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore””.