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It’s a terrible pity that while watching “The Raven,” one imagines lead character Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) would probably detest it. A hallowed writer known for beautiful prose beyond just popular spook stories, Poe surely favored a kind of grace and wit this film is sorely lacking. A period thriller that reimagines Poe’s last days as a connect-the-dots murder mystery, the movie is constantly undone by self-seriousness and the distraction of a retrospective voice, its characters speaking not from their own time, but from ours, where every half-literate high schooler is well aware of Poe’s dark and offbeat influence.
Shaping a story around a copycat killer who brings Poe’s goriest works to life isn’t a bad idea, as it ostensibly aims for something very much down Poe’s alley, and it dodges usual tropes of the biopic. But as written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare, and as directed by “V for Vendetta” helmer James McTeigue, “The Raven” amounts to nothing more than a brisk procedural found in countless paperbacks, its tale befitting Alex Cross more than one of literature’s greats.
It’s alarming how shrill McTeigue allows his film to get, sacrificing nuance for volume in virtually every dramatic moment. It’s a wonder everyone in this version of the 1840s didn’t go as deaf as Beethoven, for each character, from Poe to Detective Fields (Luke Evans), bellows his feelings and intentions like a mad dog in a shouting match. Add that to comic-book quirks like Poe’s recreational handling of a human heart (while hanging out with his pet raccoon), and you’ve got one of the year’s worst unintentional lampoon pieces.
The final product is indeed a shame seeing as Cusack, despite being partly to blame for that infernal racket, goes beyond his resemblance to the legend and accesses something true and tragic about his soul. Much of Poe’s exploration of gloom stemmed from a litany of personal losses, and there are great flashes where Cusack, and Cusack alone, lets us peek at that pain. But those are minor respites in a near-insufferable misfire, a movie deserving of a proper Poe demise.
The Raven
R
One reel out of four
Opens tomorrow in area theaters
Recommended Rental
Joyful Noise
PG-13
Available Tuesday
Don’t sneer too much at this belt-it-out crowd-pleaser. Dolly Parton may look silly bursting out of her choir robes, and Queen Latifah may finally overplay her Strong Black Woman card, but “Joyful Noise” hits every note it needs to, and both of its lead stars deliver precisely what their fans crave—comedically, dramatically, and, of course, musically.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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