The Raven

     There have been so many great writers over the past five hundred years. They share their imaginations with us by the great stories they tell, stories about love, about life, and about murder. What, instead of a story about murder, the story actually uses the author as the main character, who must help solve the crimes. The crimes he must help solve are ones being committed based on the author’s own stories.

   “The Raven” does just that, by taking Edgar Allen Poe and having him solve crimes based on his book. Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack) is a man whose best work seems to be behind him. He spends his nights drinking alcohol and challenging random people to quote his work. Everything changes though when a series of murders grip Baltimore that are out of Poe’s own stories. Detective Fields (Luke Evens) brings Poe in for questioning and tells him that he must help find the killer. Poe recognizes a clue and knows where the killer will strike next and sets off to stop him. The clue was a distraction as the killer kidnaps Poe’s love, Emily (Alice Eve), as he raises the stakes in his game of wits with Poe. More people are killed as clues are left for Poe to find Emily and the man that is responsible. The clock is ticking; will Poe and Detective Fields find Emily in time?

  I will say the idea of using a classic author as a crime solver based on his own writings sounds good. The problem though is Edgar Allen Poe is trying to be Sherlock Holmes, but without all the great banter. Cusack plays Poe as well as he can, but he is not the problem, the problem lies with the material. The screenplay was written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare (sounds funny Shakespeare writing an Edgar Allen Poe story). Poe’s short stories are some of the greatest ever written and have made for entertaining movies in the past, so why not just take one of those and remake that? Instead the writers took a decent idea and made a movie that just doesn’t seem to work. There are a lot of options this weekend at the box office, and in my opinion this is the last one you should consider. If you really want to get your Edgar Allen Poe fix this weekend read “The Raven”, or “A Tell -Tale Heart”  and skip going to the theater to see this film.

 Brian Taylor