“The Raven” starring John Cusack, Luke Evans and Alice Eve
“The Raven” is a murder mystery with a few twists. The murders being investigated in the film appear to be based on the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. But more than that, Poe himself is a featured character in this film, set in the mid-19th century.
The movie follows Poe (John Cusack) in the last few days leading up to his death (the real-life Poe died in 1949 after he was found walking around in a delirious state in Baltimore.) The movie, directed by Ben Livingston, starts with Poe returning to Baltimore after some time away. He is in town in hopes of getting a critical essay published in a local newspaper. But first and foremost, he is after a drink at the local pubs and the hand of the woman he loves.
Poe hasn’t had anything published recently; he’s turned away from the pub because he owes money on a tab for his last visits; and the father of the woman he loves despises him.
Thinks don’t look so great for Poe, but they take a turn for the worse when Detective Fields (Luke Evans) wants to talk to him about a murder. A woman has been found dead, her daughter stuffed up a fireplace. The scene of the crime is eerily like one of his short stories. When a second man shows up killed by a swinging pendulum, Poe is the top suspect since he worked with the man at the newspaper.
Poe works with Fields to clear his name and also to try to protect his love, Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve). Poe and Emily have secretly gotten engaged and their plan is to announce the engagement to her father Capt. Hamilton (Brendan Gleeson) at a costume ball to be held in honor of Emily’s birthday. Fields and Poe realize that the party may be the target of the mysterious murderer since Poe has a story about a host who is murdered in his own home. Fields gets Capt. Hamilton to agree to let in police inspectors to patrol the party. But somehow even with the large force of officers, the mystery man manages to kidnap Emily.
Poe and Capt. Hamilton are at odds over the kidnapping, especially when a note arrives that orders Poe to pen another story in which he will have to come up with an ending that will keep Emily alive. The newspaper publisher agrees to run the installments of the story. For each installment, Poe and Fields get a clue to Emily’s whereabouts. They also continue to search through Poe’s literature for other signs of what might be coming next.
The movie is suspenseful, but it has a little bit of dark humor in it in many of the comments Poe (Cusack) makes. It has the feel of the “Sherlock Holmes” films with Robert Downey Jr., but is much more restrained. Some of the murder investigation scenes are a little on the gory side, so the few odd remarks that garner laughter are welcome.
Though the search is on for Emily, the focus in the movie is largely the interaction between Fields and Poe. Fields despises the writer at first, but grows to appreciate his help in the investigation as they both try to guess the killer’s next move. They both seem to come to the conclusion about who might be responsible for the killings at the same time, but they are not quick enough to save Emily and themselves.
Though Poe is a real-life character who did write macabre stories and did show up mysteriously delirious on the streets of Baltimore right before his death, the movie bears little resemblance to history. There are some mentions of true facts, such as the loss of his first wife to tuberculosis, but Emily Hamilton and the murder investigation are a figment of the imagination. “The Raven” isn’t the first or the last film that will take creative license with an historical character. After all, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is due out later this year.
