The Raven (R)
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The movie is set in 1849, and presents a possible, if incredibly improbable, explanation of the final days of Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack). It's been some time since Poe has written anything, so he's been working as a critic for a newspaper, I guess. Though his critiques don't always get published. Meanwhile, he's in love with a woman named Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), whose father despises Poe. And, uh... there's a series of murders that are inspired by Poe's fictional stories. The connection is realized by an inspector named Fields, so he brings Poe in to work on the case. And then Emily gets kidnapped by the killer, as added incentive for Poe to catch him. And the killer leaves clues for his next victim with each current victim, clues based on Poe's works, of course. I suppose I've seen things before where killers base crimes on fictional works. And I've seen things where they leave clues about their next crime (this is something I chiefly associate with the Riddler). Putting those concepts together and making Poe the writer on whose works the crimes are based is a pretty good idea, and I can't put my finger on anything I disliked about the movie. In fact, I did like it. Just maybe not quite as much as I might have hoped. To say I guessed who the killer was before it was revealed isn't really saying much, because I vaguely suspected pretty much every character in the movie, however unimportant... including a raccoon. (It wasn't the raccoon.) Though there was one point where I became pretty damn sure I knew who it was, and I was right. Anyway, the movie was entertaining enough to be worth watching once, but I can't imagine feeling the need to ever watch it again.