Review No.40: The Raven

So this weekend was the birthday of a very good friend of mine and we had planned a trip to the cinema without a specific film in mind. After weighing up the options we decided on The Raven based on the fact that together we were either fans of John Cusack or period drama. For those unaware of the story it sees Cusack play gothic author who is drafted in to help the police when a murderer starts using parts of his grizzly stories to bump off people. When his beloved Emily is kidnapped by the killer Poe must work alongside Detective Fields to find the killer which involves a lot of running around, shouting and getting to the scenes of murders too late to do anything. Meanwhile we do discover that Emily is being kept in a coffin somewhere but we never find out where so its a bit of a race against time in 19th century Baltimore with some gruesome stuff to satisfy the torture porn fanatics.

It's interesting talking about a film with a group of friends after the fact as the general consensus was that The Raven was rubbish but thankfully I didn't agree. Instead I would describe it as just a bit silly with some very hammy and overblown performances and a murder mystery plot that fizzles out with the final revelation. The thing that nobody could argue was that Cusack was great as the drunken penniless Poe who wanted more recognition that he was getting in his native Baltimore and despairing at the fact that he couldn't even get a review published in the local paper. His pursuit of Alice Eve's Emily at the fury of her father was also amusing if not completely believable as the scenes between Eve and Cusack didn't sizzle with screen chemistry and indeed Poe seemed to lavish more affection towards his pet raccoon than he did to Emily. There were some good set pieces such as Emily's kidnapping at her father's masquerade ball and the pursuit of a suspect during a performance of Macbeth. Outside of Cusack however only Brendan Gleason makes a decent job of giving some life to his character with his screen daughter Eve essentially playing the damsel in distress. However it is Luke Evans who goes completely over-the-top constantly shouting for various items and looking frustrated when he doesn't get his own way essentially seeming like a petulant child rather than an authoritative police captain. I could almost imagine watching The Raven on the TV on a rainy weekend afternoon, that is if you removed the gore and swearing, it is very silly but likeable and never boring with a lead who knows what he's doing. Sure the revelation is anti-climactic after all that has come before but those with a love of a good trashy murder mystery story will enjoy this just don't go into the cinema expecting a realistic portrayal of Edgar Allen Poe's life as you will likely be disappointed.

Verdict: Despite what my friends say this wasn't an awful film instead a trashy, hammy murder mystery that I would recommend renting on DVD and when you do you may agree with my rating of 6.5/10