Everything about Edgar Allen Poe was a Mystery and with records having been lost even after his passing in 1849, there always has been a great amount of uncertainty surrounding his death. One of the Pioneers of the Mystery Genre, he is epitomized in Director James McTeigue‘s The Raven, a fictionalized re-telling of Poe‘s (John Cusack) unfortunate final days, passionately in-love with Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve).
Baltimore at the time is under siege with a string of unsolved Murders, including that of Poe‘s Archrival Rufus Griswold (John Warnaby), eerily resembling the killings imagined in some of Poe‘s Works. Failing to accept the connection, he gets a horrific awakening when his beloved Emily finally goes missing. With the help of Inspector Emmett Fields (Luke Evans), Poe inches closer to solving these mysteries, but ultimately what is it that the Killer wants and at what cost will Poe go to saving her when he himself has little left to spare?
Although v. crafty and well-imagined, ultimately the Viewer walks away from The Raven wondering if we ever really get the true essence of Poe‘s troubled mind and personal demons, which might have made for a more interesting Piece than a Mystery Writer within a Mystery. Visually an attractive Film, smaller details like Cadence and Vocabulary in the Dialogue at times prevent us from fully being swept-away into another period in time. Although at moments bordering on the melodramatic here, Cusack is a pleasure to watch, carrying much of the weight of the Film on his own. In any less capable hands, this might not have been forgivable.
Despite modest success at the Box Office, this is the type of Film you enjoy properly on a chilly night in your Living Room with the lights dimmed and someone to grab onto when things get a bit squeamish. VVS Films releases in Canada and The Raven now is in-stores and available on DVD and DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack.
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