Crime

Thriller

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The Raven

Relativity Media

Intrepid Pictures

FilmNation Entertainment

Galavis Film

Pioneer Pictures

Endgame Entertainment

Hungary

Serbia

Spain

United States of America

English

John Cusack

Luke Evans

Alice Eve

Brendan Gleeson

Kevin McNally

Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Jimmy Yuill

Pam Ferris

Brendan Coyle

Sam Hazeldine

Adrian Rawlins

Aidan Feore

Dave Legeno

Michael Cronin

Michael Poole

Michael Shannon

Charity Wakefield

John Warnaby

Matt Slack

Ian Virgo

Michael J. Fourticq Sr.

Jasmina Ilic

Teodora Uveric

Kristof Farkas

Luka Mijatović

József Tálos

Matt Devere

Sergej Trifunović

Miloš Đuričić

Mike Kelly

Bojan Perić

Ana Sofrenović

Steve Agnew

Malina Nikolic

Miklós Kapácsy

Andrew Hefler

Pierre Boris Jaurdin

Tamara Krcunović

Jason Ryan

Antal Publik

László Konter

Mark C. Phelan

Krisztián Peer

Annamária Ördög

Ádám Földi

Dejan Cubrilov

Máté Haumann

Péter Fancsikai

Sava Rapic

James McTeigue

Marc D. Evans

Trevor Macy

Aaron Ryder

James D. Stern

Jesus Martinez Asencio

Glen Basner

Lucas Vidal

Danny Ruhlmann

Niven Howie

Elaine Grainger

Roger Ford

Kerrie Brown

Carlo Poggioli

Anđelija Vlaisavljević

Ildikó Kemény

Hannah Shakespeare

Ben Livingston

Richard Sharkey

Danilo Bećković

Lucinda Syson

Daniela Merlo

Frank Walsh

Dragan Kaplarević

Zsuzsa Kismarty-Lechner

Tibor Lázár

Paul Laugier

Milica Putnik

Christina Norman

Zoltán Horváth

Ljubomir Opacic

Kurt Van Der Basch

Radoslav Mihajlović

László Nagyidai

Dragana Radulovic

Aleksandar Savić

Krisztina Szilágyi

Jelena Šopić

Spaso Vulovic

Ray McNeill

Roxy Balogh

Marko Dimitrijevic

Nenad Grcic

Ivan Vulović

Attila Veres

John Erasmus

Steve Skroce

Lajos Bakonyi

Csaba Mitku

Imre Sándor

József Ócsai

Milan Jovanovic

Dušan Pešić

Slobodan Čađo

Kata Vermes

Kosta Doncev

István Török

Kornél Fiskovszky

Dragan Jovičić

Zoran Živković

László Bille

Balázs Révész

Zsolt Big Nagy

Péter Meiszner

László Mihály

Gyula Peterdy

Miloš Jaćimović

Shaun O'Dell

Csaba Debnár

István Faragó

Attila Golubics

Attila Hevesi

Miloš Jovanović

István Ménkü

István Törzsök

János Varga

László Balázs

György Kiss

Zsolt Irsán

Dalibor Pavlovic

Igor Pavlovic

György Vesztergombi

Szilárd Makkos

Ádám Kliegl

Dermot Hickey

Draško Pejanović

Ivana Vladić

Gábor Hevesi

Attila Bilik

Slobodan Gojković

Gábor Csaba

István Figlár

István Háry

Alex Kuchera

Ivan Leković

Marko Leković

Lazar Milanović

Péter Pozsonyi

Gabor Szucs

Attila Kolozs

Elementary my dear Edgar.

The Raven is directed by James McTeigue and written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare. It stars John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve and Brendan Gleeson. Music is by Lucas Vidal and cinematography by Danny Ruhlmann.

"On October 7, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found, near death, on a park bench in Baltimore, Maryland. The last days of his life remain a mystery"

It's a real smart idea that the makers have here, putting their own theory forward on what happened in the lead up to Poe's death. Essentially a period whodunit procedural as Poe (Cusack) and Inspector Emmett Fields (Evans) race against time to find the person who is killing in the style of Poe's literary works. Poe's love interest, Emily Hamilton (Eve), is in grave danger, so as to add extra peril and suspense into the clock ticking drama.

It's a safe piece of entertainment, one that acquaints the uninitiated with Poe's work and his life struggles away from the writing bureau. The detective angle is fun and the murders grizzly and appropriately Gothic in execution. Unfortunately it rarely convinces as a period piece. The dialogue is often out of sync with the era, Eve is miscast, the score is inappropriate and it always feels like actors playing at period rompery. 

It's a shame that it is bogged down by such irritants because Teague's direction is stylish, while the art design deserves a round of applause. Cusack is fun to watch, but more at ease playing Sherlock in the second half of the piece than a tortured soul in the first, and Evans is confident in the straight backed gentleman detective stakes. There's a good time to be had here on a surface whodunit follow the clues experience, and Poe fans will delight at catching the many references to his life and spiky works, but it unfortunately misses the mark in too many key areas. 6/10

Per Gunnar Jonsson

I just happened to find this movie in the program listings yesterday. Movies based on Edgar Allan Poe can be a bit hit or miss but I like quite a few of his works so I decided to give this one a try. I have to say that it is surprisingly good. The Victorian era setting together with the rather dark plot and atmosphere makes for a very enjoyable old times thriller. The movie is based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe but not in the usual way that one would  think when one says based on. Instead the story in this movie is a new story spun around Edgar Allan Poe as a person where his work is used by the evil mastermind in that the various stories are re-enacted in real life…with deadly results.

I, for obvious reasons, have no idea how Edgar Allan Poe was as a person and I did not really have any pre-conceived opinions before watching this movie either. I can imagine that he, as a poet and writer of rather grisly stories, might have been a wee bit excentric though so to me John Cusack’s performance as the rather excentric, somewhat alcoholic and sometimes almost insane but still brilliant Edgar Allan Poe was a very good one. Not that the rest of the actors are below par by any means.

The story, if you take it apart and remove the parts taken from Poe’s original works, is not really something to jump up and down over. However, put it together with the bits and pieces from Poe, add the characterization of Poe by Cusack, the dark Victorian ambiance and generally well implemented cinematics and you have a movie that is, as I wrote above, surprisingly good.

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The Raven

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Cast

John Cusack

Luke Evans

Alice Eve

Brendan Gleeson

Kevin McNally

Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Jimmy Yuill

Pam Ferris

Brendan Coyle

Sam Hazeldine

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