The Raven

When we first saw the movie trailer for The Raven, the film went on our radar as one to see at an actual theater. John Cusack, one of the most interesting and diversely talented actors around, plays Edgar Allan Poe, a writer with whom Rob shares a certain, shall we say, camaraderie.

Here’s the back story on Rob and Poe. At some point in the late 1990s, Rob became sort of obsessed with Poe. He read the short stories, found some strange synchronicities, started taking notes. The notes eventually grew into Romancing the Raven, a wonderful time travel adventure involving Poe, a young New York woman from the late twentieth century, and a romance that spans centuries.

When Rob handed me the manuscript, I think I read it in a couple of days. It pulled at me, the way good stories always do. One of his characters – Uncle Fids – was actually a friend of ours, an eccentric and lovable psychic whom Rob met because of The Rainbow Oracle,  a divination book that he co-authored with Tony Grosso.

In the book, there’s a terrific scene at a tribute in Central Park for John Lennon,  a spot Fids took us to the last time we saw him. “This man wasn’t just a visionary,” Fids said. “He was a prophet.” The three of us sat in the sunlight on one of the benches, staring at the emblem: Imagine. Rob uses that spot a bit differently in the book, but Uncle Fids is there, just as he was in real life.

So on the afternoon of mother’s day -a hallmark holidays, right? -we buy our popcorn and settle in for the movie. Here’s the IMDB synopsis: When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.

But that summary isn’t quite accurate. The murders are practically duplicates of stuff that Poe has written and at this moment in his life, he’s broke, drinks too much, and is madly in love with Emily, whose wealthy father despises him. But when Emily is abducted at a costume ball by this serial killer, the story breaks wide open.

Cusack is terrific in whatever role he plays. He was great in the surreal Being John Malcovich, in the romantic comedy Must Love Dogs, the oddball High Fidelity,  and now, as the misfit Poe.  (And, oh by the way, I love this man’s politics.)

Poe died under mysterious circumstances  on October 7, 1849, at the age of 40. Four days earlier, he had been found on a park bench in a Baltimore, Maryland in great physical distress. The film leads you up to those final hours of his life and is a masterfully executed whodoneit.

The screenwriter obviously did his homework about Poe. I  mean, you would think this would be a given, but too many movies based on real people tend to bend those facts for fictional purposes. The last word that Poe uttered, in real life, was Reynolds. And it’s on that word that the film ultimately pivots.  It’s where speculative fiction must enter in because, in real life, to this day, no one knows who or what Reynolds was to Poe.

Yes, there’s graphic violence in this film. But that certainly fits with Poe’s stories and adds to the general eerie world Poe inhabited, in his own head.  Cusack brings that madness to life on the screen.There are some wonderful twists and turns and surprises in the plot. Rob and I kept whispering to each other, He’s the killer, no that guy is the killer…. And we were wrong.

Rob’s only criticism of the movie was that Poe was depicted as being more athletic than he probably was in real life. In one scene, he races through a foggy woods on horseback; Rob leans toward me and whispers, “No way.”

I had read some reviews of the movie. The Palm Beach Post reviewer thought it was too slow and gave it a B. I guess if you compare it with X-Men or to the trailer we saw for the next G.I Joe movie,  then yes, it’s slow. One review I read said the film was okay, but “creatively bankrupt.” Huh?

We are all critics. What moves me may not move you. What speaks to me, may not speak to you. But to say that the move is creatively bankrupt tells me that whoever wrote this has never created anything. Every writer, artist, actor, entrepreneur,  filmmaker- every person engaged in a creative endeavor – creates from his or her own experience and imagination. Cusack’s interpretation of Poe as a man, a writer, a guy whose lover has been kidnapped by a serial killer duplicating what he writes about in his stories, is pitch perfect.

But if you’re looking for car chases, lasers,  shoot outs, and terrorists with nukes, don’t bother with this movie. The Raven is a film that engages you intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually,  but deep within that dark archetypal night of the soul when your worst nightmares whisper, What if, what if…

Cusack did for Poe in film what Rob does for him in Romancing the Raven. Am I prejudiced? You bet. But don’t take my word for it. See the film. Read the book.  You decide.

 

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16 Responses to The Raven

  1. Interesting review, haven’t seen the movie but it was released in the UK in March.

  2. gypsy says:

    what a great review of a film that seems to have all the earmarks of being one long remembered – definitely a must-see for many reasons – john cusack’s poe is superb and the cinematography and musical score divine – and then, the story! rob’s raven is on my list as well – cannot wait to be absorbed in both! thanks so much for such an interesting post!!!

  3. mathaddict2233 says:

    T & R, whomever responded to my comments…….your description fits 99.9% of every person in my life. I, too, listen and learn from them. But, contraily, they have no interest or desire to listen or learn anything from me, and therefore I ceased decades ago to share, except on rare occasions and with a select few, because I grew weary of being odd woman out. Now I simply maintain silence and go on about my interests, learning from whomever I can about whatever I can. I wasn’t putting ANYONE down with my comments. Not by any means. It’s understandable when one lives, as I have all these years, in a married family of evangelical fundamental Christians who believe I’m satanic and that I worship the devil. So, I keep my own counsel and let them think what they will. My personal vow, made to myself, is to never argue religion or spirituality with anyone, and to be quiet about my paranormal experiences. Otherwiase, chaos erupts and I’m not into chaos.

    • Rob and Trish says:

      Rob replied.I tend to stay away from people who aren’t at least open to some of the ideas we’ve explored on the blog.Narrow-minded, I suppose, but at this point in my life, that’s just how it is!

  4. mathaddict2233 says:

    Would very much love to hear those prophesies! And Aleksandar, I have a feeling that everyone who frequents this blog has questions on occasion about the state of our sanity. I’ve certainly questioned my own more times than I can count, and continue to do so. It’s because, I believe, we extend our thoughts so far out of the box and so far out on limbs that most folks don’t attempt to do. And perhaps our minds function differently than the minds of the global masses. I don’t mean to imply that we are in any manner better or higher, just that we tend to be more inquisitive and more intensely interested in matters that are of little to no concern to most. And if we are insane, we are in good company. Methinks I prefer my particular form of insanity to some of the mental activities of “sane” individuals. At least on my final day in this life, I’ll be able to look back retrospectively and recognize that I was curious about the nature of reality, as are most of us who come here to meet on this blog! Three cheers for INSANITY!!!!! 😉

    • Rob and Trish says:

      Math, some people just do not have any interest in anything paranormal or metaphysical. I have a couple of friends who are that way. One thinks any paranormal abilities are some sort of gimmick or trick. Mentalist stuff, cold reading techniques. The other one doesn’t know, doesn’t think about, doesn’t care. I find their mentality baffling and their interests pretty mundane and boring. Yet, they both know things that I don’t know and that’s why I listen to them.

  5. mathaddict2233 says:

    When I first began to see the TV commercials for this movie, I thought about you two, T & R. I also have a “thing” with Poe but don’t know what it is. I’ve had it as long as I can remember. His works haunt me and always have, as do the life of the man and the man himself. This is a must-see movie for me. I have to wait for it to come out on rentals and/or sales, which will be awhile, but I’m excited to see it. No car chases and wham-bam stuff for me. I much prefer this type of movie, and can hardly wait to see it!

  6. Nancy says:

    Thanks for the review. Can’t wait to see it.

  7. Darren B says:

    The trailer looks good plus I love your review and I noticed in the trailer that it was made by the same people who made “V for Vendetta”,which I thought was a sync,because I have a V drawn in black pen on my left hand to remind me to ring in my subcription to Veritas magazine in the morning.Which I’ll take as my que to see this movie when it comes out in Oz.

    • Rob and Trish says:

      Is there much of a lag between when a movie comes out in the U.S. and when it’s released in Oz?

      • Darren B says:

        Not always.
        The big blockbusters come out pretty much the same day as you guys get them (to stop piracy),but some like “The Raven” can come out much later…sometimes months.

    • So, The same people have made The Raven and V for Vendetta? Now that’s something, MacGregors. I found this blog when I was searching in Google synchronicity, wolf, tiger (see my comments here https://www.synchrosecrets.com/synchrosecrets/?p=185 – Poe and the Cannibals). V for Vendetta (both comics and the movie) was heavily influenced by Aleister Crowley. Many of his writings (especially Moonchild – The Butterfly Net) are in a weird way related to me. You can find many of my comments across this blog mentioning wolves, tigers and butterflies (all of them mentioned in Moonchild). You can at the moment see a butterfly and wolves on the right side of this webpage (book covers) and I found these days a tiger here: https://www.teaobreht.com/. Combine this stuff with a few real-life people and a prophecy mentioned here https://www.duhovnaizgradnja.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=239&sid=4d9f0f366dc42cae9101a4eebb8e20da (in Serbian, sorry) and more books by the author behind these prophecies and you have a pretty weird prophecy that I’ll personally meet that “2012” guy. Actually, it looks like I am him (my name, my mother’s name Vuka (vuk is wolf in Serbian)) even if I can’t be. I’ve been questioning my sanity for 8 years and getting weirder and weirder answers.

      • Rob and Trish says:

        I remember your first connection with the blog, Aleksandar. It’s an intriguing sequence of synchros, for sure. I wish I read Serbian! What are the specifics of this prophecy??

        • The specifics of the prophecy is that somewhere out there is the reincarnation of Nikola Tesla and that the author Milovan Jovanovic (first in the book Putnici (Travelers) and later in more details in Kraj igre (Endgame) and Sedma knjiga (Seventh Book)) knows his name (he ignored me after I had asked him, just like one more woman mentionede in his later books). That man is supposed to almost single-handedly for a short time move paranormal phenomena (telepathy (enhanced by the internet), time as an illusion…) into the mainstream. Also, he (if he exists) is supposed to work on renewable energy and environmentalism. Without any intent from my side to base my decisions on books, I’ve become a PhD student interested in renewable energy. I guess that MoonCHILD and The Tiger WIFE part mentioned above would be about the “they lived happily ever after” ending (that book is called DOUBLE Heart and it has two wolves on the cover – you can’t imagine how I felt when I was writing these words). The novel Carigradski drum (Constantinople Road) by Nenad Ilic mentions another (or perhaps the same) man who will choose to live as an ordinary man (take off the crown), but will still share the same name with the first emperor (Alexander?) and whose mother has the same name as the first emperor’s mother. Olympias isn’t a common name, but, since the nearest Olympic Games from here were in Sarajevo (winter 1984) and the mascot was a wolf Vucko, that was my starting point for weirdness 8 years ago.

          At the moment I am writing this comment, I don’t have any idea how could I achieve anything above average (or even average), not to mention contribute to or be something huge. On the other hand, something spooky seems to be happening (I missed here a lot of details), even if I really don’t understand what and why.

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