To be an author and to live your work must be a wonderfully surreal experience. If you're someone like, say, J.K. Rowling, to walk through a Hogwarts film set is a gift; it's the physical manifestation of your imagination, come to life before your very eyes. The same, however, may not be said if you're someone like Edgar Allan Poe.
And yet, live his work is precisely what Poe must do in the new drama The Raven. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), The Raven tells the fictitious account of the mysterious last days of famed writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. In the film, Poe (John Cusack) becomes the inspiration for a serial killer, one who draws upon even the minutest details of the writer's short stories to stage his killings. When a team headed by a Detective Fields (Luke Evans) begins to hunt the killer, Poe, the natural expert on the recurring murders, finds himself fighting for the woman he loves (Alice Eve) and challenged by a mastermind more disturbed than he.
To this day, no one really knows what caused Poe's death, or what, exactly, occurred in the last few days he was alive, and The Raven's attempt to answer those questions is, admittedly, quite creative. (I mean, what better way for the author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" to go than chasing a deranged murderer?) In fact, screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare (ironically) attempt a tactic similar to that employed in 1998's romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love—both films try to concoct clever scenarios that might lend some insight as to what actually inspired some of the world's literary geniuses. However, while The Raven tries to paint a thrilling picture of said events, try is really all it manages to do. Unlike Shakespeare, The Raven never succeeds in executing its tale with much intelligence; neither does it do so with wit, elegance, or much subtlety.
It's unfortunate that this film is bogged down by such a thinly-crafted script and rather messy direction because I found, and actually still find, the entire concept to be quite fascinating; then again, I've been intrigued by Poe for as long as I can remember. And considering who, and what, the movie is about, I found it to be more silly than scary; I mean, I'm pretty sure I laughed during scenes (and lines, especially) I probably wasn't supposed to, and found Poe's human heart-eating pet raccoon Carl far more amusing than I probably should have.
To read the rest of the review (IMDb form too short) visit: http://custodianfilmcritic.com/theraven/
And yet, live his work is precisely what Poe must do in the new drama The Raven. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), The Raven tells the fictitious account of the mysterious last days of famed writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. In the film, Poe (John Cusack) becomes the inspiration for a serial killer, one who draws upon even the minutest details of the writer's short stories to stage his killings. When a team headed by a Detective Fields (Luke Evans) begins to hunt the killer, Poe, the natural expert on the recurring murders, finds himself fighting for the woman he loves (Alice Eve) and challenged by a mastermind more disturbed than he.
To this day, no one really knows what caused Poe's death, or what, exactly, occurred in the last few days he was alive, and The Raven's attempt to answer those questions is, admittedly, quite creative. (I mean, what better way for the author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" to go than chasing a deranged murderer?) In fact, screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare (ironically) attempt a tactic similar to that employed in 1998's romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love—both films try to concoct clever scenarios that might lend some insight as to what actually inspired some of the world's literary geniuses. However, while The Raven tries to paint a thrilling picture of said events, try is really all it manages to do. Unlike Shakespeare, The Raven never succeeds in executing its tale with much intelligence; neither does it do so with wit, elegance, or much subtlety.
It's unfortunate that this film is bogged down by such a thinly-crafted script and rather messy direction because I found, and actually still find, the entire concept to be quite fascinating; then again, I've been intrigued by Poe for as long as I can remember. And considering who, and what, the movie is about, I found it to be more silly than scary; I mean, I'm pretty sure I laughed during scenes (and lines, especially) I probably wasn't supposed to, and found Poe's human heart-eating pet raccoon Carl far more amusing than I probably should have.
To read the rest of the review (IMDb form too short) visit: http://custodianfilmcritic.com/theraven/