Michelle Pfeiffer is A-M-A-Z-i-N-G!

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 2017)

Okay, The Raven, collecting glamour on DVD, is here for Michelle.
First off, bad start, I thought "what the hell have I let myself in for? I don't wanna watch this...!"
It takes more than half an hour for Michelle to appear. But once she does, THERE IS NO LOOKING BACK. The blue bare- back dress, and the "I won't be seen dead in that thing" "cream puff" Cadillac scene... wow. She instantly gives the (struggling) movie what it needs!!
Even Michelle cannot change that the movie is FAR from perfect, though.
BUT:
Something happens!
From about 2 hours in, starting with the restaurant scene, the movie becomes sheer utter perfection. All of a sudden it can do no wrong, it becomes one of the best movies I have ever seen, with everything falling into place (the more everything surrounding the lead character falls apart) I wanna cheer and cheer and applaud and applaud and Tony cradling that corpse is just tooooo much in a tearful way...
That is why, when toying with the glowingly heart-felt instant desire to give it a 10, I have to acknowledge now that the movie itself suffers from a dismally bad case of being uneven in quality. There is the highs and the lows. Michelle Pfeiffer is 100% A1 A++ perfect, but Mary Elizabeth M., who has an increasingly significant and ultimately difficult role, isn't nearly in that class. The way the movie starts, with that shabby title card... okay, it featured actual newsreel, but really, my heart sank, ("this doesn't look promising...!" and first impressions COUNT!) The chainsaw scene seems poorly done, okay, it's heavily influenced by re-editing for MPAA acceptance, but be that as it may, what is presented to the viewer is just run-of-the- mill pseudo shock attempts (meaning that's how I experienced it) and compared to that shoot-out at the end (which is MASTERFUL, CLASSIC and AWESOME not just because of its violence, but because there is INVOLVEMENT with the character = I so much began feeling for him) that which is at the beginning of the movie pales in comparison...
...and to cut a long story short, IF just EVERYTHING was as good from beginning to end.
But Michelle and Al, you both go to the highest level! Respect! Honor! Reverence! Awe!