The Raven

The image of Edgar Allan Poe passed down to us is that of a dour, pale and morbid drunkard. But he was also a playful wordsmith, an eviscerating critic, a man fascinated by cryptography (codes) and fond of dissections. That’s the Poe of “The Raven,” a fanciful revision of Poe’s last days that is more entertaining than it has any right to be. Poe wore his hair a little long, and a mustache. But John Cusack gives him a goatee, a cape and a lot of swagger. No wonder the two-fisted Captain Hamilton (Brendan Gleeson) refuses to let his daughter (Alice Eve) marry this wastrel. The fair Emily, Poe’s last muse, has other ideas. Poe may be broke, but he is famous, he insists. Then, people start dying. A pit and pendulum murder here, a victim possibly walled up in a sewer there. The detective (Luke Evans) recognizes them. Somebody is imitating the deaths in Poe’s fiction. Until the killer  ups the ante. There’s a kidnapping. Clues among the murder victims will point to the correct story, the way the kidnap victim will die. Cusack, in the most dashing, least introverted role of his career, is a delight. Director James McTeigue keeps the movie in motion, and as long as it’s in motion, with Cusack delivering zingers, it works. Dread and foreboding hang over the film, which has the look of a graphic novel adaptation. But the script – peppered with Poe references – is fun, especially for Poe fans, who might cast a jaundiced eye on this endeavor. Still, if the movies can give us H.G. Wells as a  time traveler and Abraham Lincoln as a vampire slayer, why not a Poe who is a lover, a virile man of action, an amateur sleuth who sacrifices all for art and love?