The Raven

Yesterday we watched The Raven, a thriller starring John Cusak as Edgar Allen Poe. A serial killer is terrorizing 1849 Baltimore using ideas culled from Poe’s stories, and the famous writer is enlisted to help bring him to justice. The movie was fine, marred perhaps by a few gratuitous scenes of gore, but Cusak all but killed the film. He plays Poe as a dullard; while we hear that the man is troubled and plagued by drink, there is precious little to see of it – or any personality at all – from Cusak. I grade this a C.