I'm not a fan of Edgar Allan Poe nor his writings. But what really caught me during all those Humanities and World Literature classes in college is his bizarre death. Ironically but I rather play Sherlock Holmes (which is a Conan Doyle creation) and solve his death. But I never really got a good answer and instead I got a lot and possibly fabricated stories. And this 2012 film The Raven is just one of those stories.
The Raven is a fictionalized account of Edgar Allan Poe's last days. On this film Poe (John Cusack) is a filthy drunkard who already lost his will to write stories that the people use to read on the morning paper. In short, he is close to being a no one. But despite that he still struggles to live his life by writing literary reviews and with a new girlfriend Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve). But as much as all the misfortune is hitting Poe, he still find this predicament of himself ordinary. But not until one day when Baltimore is struck by bizarre killings that mirrors Poe's various literary creations. Now Poe is forced to work with Inspector Fields (Luke Evans) to solve this mystery as he races with time and to save his one and only love.
For a fiction based on real events this movie is just fortunate that this part of Poe's life is almost blank. In other words, everybody can fill it up with anything, either by truth or lies. As compared to all the stories I read, this is the most far fetched but definitely a very entertaining material specially for anybody who likes watching crime mysteries. What is good about this film is, you don't really need to be a fan of Poe's works to enjoy the film because Poe himself is there to tell you the stories. The film is dark, gritty and have enough gore and violence to satisfy audience's taste for blood without being too gruesome. John Cusack once again delivered another excellent job. I'm a big an of his performance in 1408 and considered it as one of my favorites. But now that I saw The Raven, it is definitely my new favorite. But as much as I love how the movie unfolds, the ending is quite very anticlimactic because in contrast to the whole idea of being odd, the ending is too simple and too flat for my taste.
Either way overall I enjoyed the ride. After all, I believe that the journey is more important than the destination. So despite having a weak ending, the story itself is enough for my indulgence. Now showing exclusively in all Ayala cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma), The Raven is from Intrepid Pictures, distributed by Relativity Media.
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