Review - The Raven

Grade: C

Full disclosure: I’ve loved Edgar Allan Poe’s work since my father gave an illustrated digest of some of Poe’s most famous short stories, so I’m more than a little partial to seeing Poe’s works given life on the big screen.

That said, James McTeigue’s (V for Vendetta) latest, The Raven, is a curious artifact. Reminiscent of a time in the late 90’s and early 00’s when a good old-fashioned mystery could put buts in the theater seats rather than in front of the tube, The Raven plays like a sluggish, faux pretentious knockoff of the the Hughes Brothers’ From Hell adaptation, complete with an anachronistic approach to social customs and forensics and an eccentric protagonist.

The Raven traces the supposed last days Poe’s, played with manic verbosity and comical arrogance by John Cusack, relentlessly tragic life, as he is thrust into an investigation, by dashing Baltimore Detective Fields (Luke Evans), of grisly murders based on his most famous short stories. Together, Poe, Fields, and Baltimore’s finest must rush to find the killer before Poe’s latest true love, the prim Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), is buried alive. While mostly a Se7en for the Goth crowd--which seems redundant--The Raven spends a significant time establishing Poe as a simultaneously underrated and renowned genius who was barely keeping his life together before his demise, which may be accurate but nowhere near as glamourous as McTeigue makes it seem.

McTeigue does an adequate job of recreating 19th century Baltimore and giving it some of the same visual flourishes seen in the London-set opening of the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but he drops the ball on almost every other element, especially pacing. The Raven is a slog, dragging from scene to scene without any particularly inspired aesthetic, narrative, or thematic purpose. The weak pacing might not be a problem if the mystery at the core of The Raven wasn’t so patently uninspired. When the killer and their motivation are revealed, few members of the audience will be surprised or invested enough to care.

The performances in The Raven do little to elevate the flaccid material. Cusack spends more time running around like a verbose eccentric prone to delusions of grandeur and lacking an inside voice, a view of Poe which I would bet is based on a non-English major’s perception of all tortured writers. Cusack chomps through so much scenery that the rest of the cast barely registers. Luke Evans, the newest version of the Orlando Bloom heartthrob model, makes a noble effort to out-yell Cusack, but his role is little more than a stoic straight man to Cusack’s wacky genius--indeed, theirs is a partnership destined for Friday night slot on USA. Alice eve plays the classic damsel in distress with little uniqueness or polish while next big thing Oliver Jackson-Cohen and veterans like Brendan Gleeson and Mr. Gibbs (Kevin McNally) glower and bluster and the insane proceedings.

With its uninspired performances and sluggish approach to a fairly dated premise, The Raven is far from a must-see experience, and it will never be the type of movie high schoolers can use to avoid their American Literature homework. Yet, it may appeal to poor suckers, like me, who find re-imaginings of Victorian-era detectives and literary heroes to be vaguely fascinating, much like a well-reviewed, low-selling indie comic that captures a handful of readers before its unfortunate cancellation. The Raven may not be  for everybody, but the literature majors, remaining Goths, and those indigent souls who leave liquor at Poe’s grave every year will at least find it amusing.

Yin, Yang, and the In-Between

Yin: Cusack chomps scenery as a parody of Poe while Luke Evans and the cast do little to keep up; Uninspired mystery at the core will leave most viewers cold or asleep.

Yang: Like other recent cinematic adventures to the 19th century, fascinating as a comic-booky imagining of Poe’s as a Holmesian crime-solver.

In-Between: I’m dating myself, but remember Edgar Allan Poe from the Beetlejuice cartoon? As cartoony as this is, it somehow never comes close to that parody.

Review - Safe House

Grade: C+

Yin: Another spin on the Denzel+young actor formula. Generally unoriginal and uninspired all-around, from the plot to the performances to the aesthetic. Trust me; you’ve seen this movie a dozen times, just with less blood. Poor Denzel seems exhausted from doing the same movie over and over again.

Yang: Action beats are pretty solid despite bringing nothing particularly new to the table. Decent pacing keeps things moving with only a few signs of sluggishness in the middle. Bloodier than most movies of its ilk—if you enjoy that sort of thing (I do.)

In-Between: How many shanty towns in developing countries must be destroyed so Hollywood can make a buck? Just saying…

It’s been little more than ten years since Training Day was released, so Swedish director Daniel Espinosa must have thought it was high time that classic was remade.

He was wrong.

For what seems like the twelfth time in as many years, Denzel Washington teams with a rising, or falling as the case may be, young white star—this year’s model is the woefully beat-upon Ryan Reynolds—in a middle-of-the-road actioner that is besieged with jump-cut editing and barely comprehensible set pieces.

As another play on the disenchanted mentor/wide-eyed mentee narrative, Safe House tells the tale of legendary CIA operative turned rogue intelligence dealer Tobin Frost (Washington)—like out in the cold? How clever—who is captured by a CIA detail in Cape Town after violently eluding a cadre of scowling, ambiguously Middle Eastern and African assassins. Frost is promptly delivered to a CIA safe house monitored by the mild-mannered Matt Westin (Reynolds), a bored “housekeeper” who is bored out of his skull and constantly bugging his gruff superior (Brendan Gleeson) back in the states for an opportunity to become a case officer. When the CIA unit charged with “encouraging”—with the use of a towel and a gallon of water—Frost to reveal the extent of his treasonous actions is wiped out by the same assassins who thrust Frost into their hands, Westin is forced to keep his “houseguest” secure until an extraction team arrives, which, of course, proves far easier said than done.

Recalling a spate of genre thrillers from the aforementioned Training Day to 16 Blocks to Unstoppable, Safe House treads so much familiar ground and apes so much visual panache from better films that it barely registers as original. The through-line of the plot is fairly threadbare, but the implications that every player involved is more than meets the eye telegraphs the “twist” at the end before the first half-hour is up. The twist at the end is of course directly related to some crowd-pleasing anti-government, anti-CIA rhetoric that has been warmed over so much that one audience member stood up at the end of the screening and announced to all within earshot, “News flash: don’t trust the CIA.” Adding to the stale subtext and flimsy plot is Espinosa’s visual style, which rips off frequent Denzel Washington-collaborator Tony Scott so thoroughly—complete with grainyness, oversaturated palette, and spastic edits—that I had to triple check the credits and IMDb to ensure Scott’s lack of involvement. To those who haven’t seen a Denzel Washington movie in the past five years, this visual style may seem like an energetic revelation. The rest of us know better.

I hear you out there: “So, the plot’s weak and it kind of looks like crap, but Denzel is in it, so at least there’s some solid acting, right?” To which I would respond, “Sadly, no.” Poor Denzel looks tired in this flick. He’s not tired in the dismissive sense that his skill has been compromised, but he appears exhausted, as if he’s finally had enough of this charade. I get it. He wants to challenge himself. He wants to perform theater rather than hoisting up the flavor of the month. I understand completely, and it’s clear that this is his “one for them” movie, which will allow him to make some pocket change then go do whatever he wants for the rest of the year—meaning we should expect another variation on this formula in either January or November of 2013. While Denzel may not be putting his Oscar-winning best on display, his turn as a smirking trickster is saddled with enough weariness and resignation that his performance becomes a intriguing case of art imitating life. Reynolds, on the other hand, is pushed way out of his comfort zone into a role as a sad-eyed, tight-lipped action star that prevents Reynolds from playing the smart-ass joker he’s famous for playing. I suppose this was a bold decision, but it seems unwise to rein in Reynolds and keep him from adding his trademark humor to the flick’s generally dour proceedings, but what do I know. With Reynolds and Washington dominating the screen time with their redo of Washington and Ethan Hawke’s chemistry in Training Day, the rest of the notable cast is saddled with thankless roles as shady CIA spooks who forgot the Cold War ended. Brendan Gleeson does little with his role as Westin’s superior besides grumbling, placing his hands on his hips, and barking orders. Vera Farmiga is also forced to play below her ability as a stateside unit director desperately searching for Frost in a sour variation on Joan Allen’s role from the Bourne Trilogy. Sam Shepard shows up for a few scenes, as well playing a CIA deputy director who obviously believes in the Patriot Act a bit too deeply. Honestly, I would feel bad for all the actors involved if I wasn’t sure this was going to be at least a modest hit.

In fact, I have no doubt that audiences will eat this up. It’s ridiculously violent, generally well-placed, and not the least bit challenging or surprising--why ask for more? I will not deny that there are some solid action beats and some spectacular carnage that occurs between the opening and final frame, but so much of Safe House is nakedly unoriginal and rote that the weaknesses outweigh the occasional high notes. Personally, I think everybody involved—audience included--deserved better—except for Espinosa, and that’s only because I don’t know his work that well. That said, if you’re looking for some fairly muscular if unoriginal action, or you absolutely love Denzel, feel free to check out Safe House, but you would be better off just renting or downloading Training Day, Unstoppable, and Man on Fire.