Review: The Raven (2012)

by

25, March 2012Reviews

Cast: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson
Director: James McTeigue
Country: USA, Hungary, Spain
Genre: Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: The Raven opens in North American theatres starting April 27th.

For an author whose work is so intently literary and driven by internal monologue, Edgar Allen Poe has been adapted to the screen an incredible number of times. His are tales of fragile minds: unreliable narrators whose every perception is subject to the wild hallucinations and inane ramblings of full-fledged lunacy. It’s admirable that The Raven elects to try something different in adapting Poe, bringing aspects of his stories out into the “real world” and making them pieces of a puzzle the author himself has to unravel to save the life of his bride-to-be, thus marrying the ethereal atmosphere of the man’s writing with a very loose biographical interpretation and neatly avoiding the difficulties of bringing his command of language and its haunting power to screen. It’s not an entirely original concept—Universal’s 1935 Karloff/Lugosi starring film of the same name also involved a madman who recreated Poe’s torture devices—but it demonstrates a respectfulness on the part of screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare for Poe’s inimitable chilling style.

Cusack crosses the line into scenery-chewing more than once, but his portrayal is, on the whole, an admirable affair well-executed.

The Raven takes its subject’s infamous death four days after being found in a mysterious state of disarray and uses it as a springboard from which to launch a titillating crime thriller. John Cusack plays the literary giant with a raucous boyishness, his verbosity spilling over at least as often as an omnipresent alcoholic beverage. This Poe—not unfaithful to the real man, it seems—is a drunkard disgusted by his obscurity in his native Baltimore. He begs the editor of local paper The Patriot to publish his reviews but knows that these will find no favour in comparison with the chilling tales of his earlier years. Cusack crosses the line into scenery-chewing more than once, but his portrayal is, on the whole, an admirable affair well-executed. Alas, he’s the only character of the film who might be considered at all appealing. Appearing as a detective tasked with hunting down the Poe-obsessed murderer is Luke Evans, bearing a striking resemblance both physically and behaviourally to Michael Shannon. His performance is solid, but the script never gives him more to do than clumsily moving the plot along. In one scene a clue must be deciphered using a plethora of navigational equipment; perhaps aware of the audience, he asks for an explanation of what everything is for.

James McTeigue’s direction is another problem for The Raven, sacrificing some potential scares in favour of a frenetic action pace that seems entirely out of place with the period setting. He tries to be modern, having his camera pull back through keyholes in fanciful CGI shots, rapidly cut on racing carriages, and try unconvincingly to convey an eerie atmosphere through little more than fog and, believe it or not, lightning. The bizarre steel and glass aesthetic of the closing credits is a testament to this aesthetic mismanagement, trying to be sleek and now where a deeper involvement with creating a genuine gothic feel would have worked far better. The script is also guilty of this crime at times, including such ghastly cliché lines as “the mayor wants results”, and trying to draw cheap laughs with lewd words. It’s bad enough to have a character announce his intention to urinate for (decidedly ineffective) comic effect, but to do so in something inspired by the work of a great writer is little more than shameful.

The bizarre steel and glass aesthetic of the closing credits is a testament to this aesthetic mismanagement, trying to be sleek and now where a deeper involvement with creating a genuine gothic feel would have worked far better.

With a host of predominantly dull characters—Alice Eve’s screaming damsel in distress is positively wooden and Brendan Gleeson as her father is tremendously misused—The Raven transposes great works of fiction into an entirely average mystery story. It’s not a terrible film—there’s an appreciable smattering of efficient comedy throughout and Cusack does a fine job as Poe—but nor is it the kind of thing anyone will recall with ease a few years down the line. To this day the lead-up to Poe’s death remains a mystery; that and that alone is a better story then The Raven ever manages to be.

48/100 ~ BAD. With a host of predominantly dull characters, The Raven transposes great works of fiction into an entirely average mystery story.

Ronan Doyle
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Assistant Editor and Senior Film Critic. Having spent the vast majority of my life sharing in the all too prevalent belief than cinema is merely dumbed-down weekend escapism for the masses, I was lucky enough to turn on a television at the exact right moment to have my perspectives on the medium completely transformed. Those first two and a half hours marked the beginning of a new life revolving around—maybe even depending upon—the screen and the depth of artistry, intellectual stimulation, and emotional exhilaration it can provide.