The Pale blue Eye
Christian Bale teams up once again with his hostiles director for the Netflix dark crime mystery, The Pale Blue Eye. At West Point in 1830, a world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadet's code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case, a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.
Christian Bale stars as this aging detective lander who's summoned to West Point to solve the murder of one of the cadets there. As he goes about his investigation, he rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but he also ends up befriending Edgar Allan Poe, who's one of the cadets played by Harry Mellon. In addition to those two, this stars Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, Lucy Boynton, Fred Heshinger, Gillian Anderson, Robert Duvall, and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
This is directed by Scott Cooper, who directed movies such as Black Mass, Hostels, and Antlers. Sometimes his stories are slower in pace, and they take their time to unravel the narrative. And here, it's no different.
The movie's two hours and ten minutes, and time's very evident. The pace is patient and deliberate, but it's also slow. There are engaging moments as Lander and Poe have conversations and work the mystery, but through a lot of the other portions, I was struggling to maintain interest.
And it's not really the acting that's an issue. I mean, Christian Bale is reserved for the most part. Harry Mellon is animated and almost over-caffeinated, which works really well for the character and then their dynamic.
The mystery angle just became uninteresting to me, or maybe it just wasn't very captivating. Part of that may be because we're given zero tie to the victims. They're absolute strangers. And even though this all takes place in a fairly centralized location, I didn't feel any urgency present to have the murders solved.
When Poe and Lander are working together, that's when I was most engaged with the story. Their interactions carry a lot of weight and emotion, especially as they each semi-dive into family histories.
These then establish the mindsets and allow us to see more intimately into their characters.
Part of the story hints at the supernatural, which is fitting since this is involving Poe, where I was thinking that some of this, it could then play a role later in his life to craft his poems and stories. But that arc is barely examined, or at least it's sporadically looked at.
I mean, it's never with any consistency, so it really does become a background thought. The cinematography for this, though, is a definite reason to give this a watch. While the entire setting is snow-covered mountainsides and forests, there's a bluish hue to the entire production. And we get some wonderful looking wide shots of the forest that really help to create both depth and scale, dwarfing anybody who dare enter the woods.
Sometimes there are also aerial shots that look straight down onto the forest, where we see barren trees dotting the snowy landscape. And even the interior shots that are darkly lit, they're excellent to view, where the only warmth comes from the orangish candlelight, and that gives a quaintness to some of the settings, and then a foreboding atmosphere to others.
The set and costume designs are also great to look at.
I have zero clue about their historical accuracy, but the outfits themselves, they look stuffy and regimented, just enough to pass for a soldier's uniform. And then everybody else that was featured, it ranged from the wealthy upper class with fine fabrics, to the dregs who maintained their seat at the pub, looking worn and weary from cold hard work.
I already mentioned that I enjoyed the conversations between Poe and Lander the best. The film spends the last 20 minutes with an excellent exchange between the two. This was probably the most emotional and powerful segment of the entire story, and the actors kill it with their quiet emotion.
I was actually bummed that I had to wait so long to find this massive bright spot in the storytelling. I'm not talking about the actual story content, that is still rather dark. I'm referring to the execution of the scene. It was impactful, captivating, and beautifully acted.
Unfortunately, that sentiment, it doesn't apply to the rest of the movie, especially in the captivating area. Although this isn't a Pooh movie, but it is rather lackluster in what it could be.
Please don't get me wrong, I don't want this to be some high-action film that's busy or loud. I enjoy patient storytelling, but I wanted the story to really grab me, make me care about the case, so that then I cared about the investigation and its outcome. Overall, The Pale Blue Eye gives a peek into the curious man who became the world-renowned Edgar Allan Poe.
The mystery contained within the story isn't as intriguing as it should be, keeping most of the characters at arm's length and failing to give the audience a reason to be invested. The acting is great, especially with Bale and Melling, as they engage in passionate discussion and share a dynamic that's enjoyable to watch. The best part of the movie is the last 20 minutes, and that's not something you want to hear about a film that's over two hours long.
A bunch of violence did play out on the movie, with a bit of sexual violence. Overall, the movie is on the average. So for that, I'll rate the movie a five out of ten.
Well, the film itself is not based on real events but on a story by Edgar Alan Poe, who is known for developing stories of terror, death and tragedy. I liked the film, I thought it was very well developed and I loved seeing Bale acting.