A Reel Review: THE PALE BLUE EYE

After his Oscar-winning film CRAZY HEART (2009), writer and director Scott Cooper has spent a lot of time with characters who fall to the dark side. From Johnny Depp’s gangster in BLACK MASS (2015), to two Christian Bale films: OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013), and HOSTILES (2017). For 2022, he re-unites with Bale for another journey into the deep cockles of the human soul with THE PALE BLUE EYE. 

 

In 1830, the widowed, alcoholic, and retired detective Augustus Landor (Bale), is asked to solve the hanging and mutilation of a West Point cadet. While investigating, he enlists the help of cadet and budding poet Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling), to assist. 

 

Directed by Cooper and based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard, THE PALE BLUE EYE is a bleak whodunit set firmly in a young country that has not yet entered the Civil War. Landor is the right man for the job despite his personal issues, drinking too much and in mourning over the loss of his wife and teen daughter. He broods his way through clue after clue in his pursuit of the killer; a killer that kills one cadet after another and removes their hearts. Landor gets help from a young Poe, whose insight into human frailty has him convinced that the killer is more than just a madman. 

 

It’s a murder mystery but at the same time an examination of the human heart. The motivations behind the killer’s actions take a long while to be revealed (as they should be), but once out in the open makes sense for the time period. With a young Poe in the mix, the man who would eventually become the father of the American whodunit, we would expect to see an easter-egg or two teasing the many works that he would eventually write. Thankfully, Cooper reigns himself in here, and although some subtle visuals are there, the film doesn’t bother working as a Poe Prequel. 

 

Cooper films a gorgeous looking movie with the thick white snows, grey skies, and startling blue waters. Pacing is far from breakneck, and is in no rush to get anywhere. Howard Shore’s score is excellent. 

 

Acting is outstanding. Christian Bale gives us an intelligent character with dry wit counterbalanced by his constant mourning. As good as he is, he is overshadowed by an electric performance by Harry Melling. The former HARRY POTTER actor steals the show with energized wit and charm, and lights up the screen every second. The rest of the ensemble cast is also very good: Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gillian Anderson, and Robert Duvall. 

 

THE PALE BLUE EYE goes through a lot of twists and turns to get to its revelation, but just when we think the film is headed for the exit, it knocks us on our butts with a whopper of a turn…which changes everything we had just viewed for the past 100 minutes, and makes us immediately want to watch again for the clues. No raven will be yelling “never” on this one. 

 

BOTTOM LINE: See it