Movie Review of
"The Raven"
"The Raven"
By Holly Shanks
STLCC FV Forum Student Newspaper
STLCC FV Forum Student Newspaper
The Raven brings Edgar Allen Poe’s
dark gothic catacomb of imagination to life
on the big screen and puts a new twist
on the last few days of Poe's life.
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The character of Edgar Allen Poe is played by John Cusack and is loosely based on real life events surrounding the penniless poet who helped father the gruesome genre of horror in the 1800s.
Poe's death has been debated since he took his last breath at the age of 40 on October 7, 1849. He died under mysterious circumstances that have never been explained.
The Plot
A black raven, one of Poe’s calling cards, clings to a branch overlooking a man sitting on a park bench. Suddenly a woman’s chilling scream, sends the film to it's whirling murderous start. The viewers are treated with a broke, and often drunken literary critic (Poe) who bounces from eccentric to troubled and soulfully tortured.
Poe’s love interest is the beautiful Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), who is guarded from Poe by her protective father (Brendan Gleeson). The lovers secretly find happiness in each others arms, and are about to live happily ever after, until Emily gets kidnapped by a dark poetic figure that has seemingly sprang to life from Poe’s ink pot and quill.
Poe finds himself trapped inside his own nightmarish macabre stories. Dead bodies keep turning up in the same circumstances Poe's characters met their deaths inside his imaginatively written plots. Searching for clues with Detective Fields (Luke Evans), Poe must identity the killer before time runs out for Emily and she becomes another one the author's tragic endings. Unfortunately, Poe discovers the murderer just in time to trade his life for hers.
The visual feel of the film is dramatic and authentic looking right down to Poe’s corked liquor bottles and rich period inspired costumes. The sometimes gory and bloody crime scenes are reproduced straight out of Poe’s classics such as, “The Pit and the Pendulum” with the recognizable large heavy pendulum that swings back and forth, just as in Poe’s writing, agonizingly escalating the suspense of terror until it comes to a sudden stop as it hits the wooden table beneath the back of the victim with a sickening heavy thud.
Poe fans will not be disappointed by the rhythmic lyrical lines encompassing Poe’s trademark style that spill easily from Cusack’s lips. However, dark poetic lines mixed with lighter humanistic ones convey a touch of humor sprinkled throughout keeping the tenseness of the dreadful near-death and corpse viewing sequences from engulfing the film. That mixture could be a plus or minus for the movie-goer depending on their Poe-like expectations.
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