The Pale Blue Eye (2023) Dir. Scott Cooper

Canny old Netflix sure know what they’re doing as they recently dropped onto their platform The Raven, a 2012 murder-mystery starring a fictionalised Edgar Allan Poe played by John Cusack. In what seems like an appropriate appetiser, it acts nicely as a warm-up for this alternative exploration inspired by the author’s life and work.

Here we are taken to 1830s America where Christian Bale plays Augustus Landor, a veteran and secluded detective who is called to West Point, a military academy, by senior officers.

On arrival, the officials (Simon McBurney and Timothy Spall) explain that a body has been found that has not only be hanged but later mutilated with the heart of the corpse removed from their chest.

And so Bale agrees to assist and begins his investigation by interviewing cadets, one of whom is Edgar Allan Poe, brilliantly played by an enigmatic Harry Melling, who delivers a deep, twisted and dark, but very emotional, performance throughout.

Together they make a formidable pairing, with Landor enlisting Poe’s inside-knowledge to dig into the relationships and past of the boys in the barracks.

Bale, visually reminiscent of his role in Nolan’s The Prestige (all top-hat and pointed beard) delivers his standard quiet-loud tone but here his fiery wrath hints upon a darker past.

From small notes and hidden diaries to secret meetings, the clues begin to slowly emerge but these are never the most cinematic of actions I feel. I still maintain The Da Vinci Code barely translates to the screen given its literary linguistic puzzles, and this film’s slow first half is a dullish slog of build-up.

Poe begins to interact and fall for Lea Marquis (Lucy Boynton) a woman who has a seizure-inducing illness whilst her smarmy and arrogant brother becomes one of a number of cadets suspected of the crime. Poe and Lea’s unlikely bond link the two – his bleak outlook connects with her own melancholy that stems from her condition which has yet to be cured.

The film is shot beautifully, with the cinematography capturing wintery landscapes but also very sinister rooms sometimes only lit by candlelight. Shadows combine with oil lanterns, shafts of crisp sunlight and smoky night time forests which certainly echo Poe’s gothic prose.

Further murders and a number of cut-up animals are subsequently discovered as the story moves along, and leads both men down clandestine paths of inquiry. However, the film’s slightly absurd plot points and vague tone about sins of the past are definitely two areas that needed more thought beforehand.

Bale and Melling create an unlikely kinship - with the brash and bold detective finding camaraderie with Poe’s wordy and thoughtful cadet but it proves immensely watchable on screen. None more so when they appear in deep explorative conversations alone, both actors delivering the dialogue splendidly.

One minor gripe was the accents. Each actor seemingly mixing American and English pronunciations in the same line. Maybe this was historically accurate but was hugely off-putting in the first act but I slowly accepted its slightly odd lexicon.

Director Scott Cooper again brings his measured pace from Black Mass (2015) and Hostiles (2017), although this film could have done with a swifter beginning to throw us into the excitement of its mystery set up. It’s a small barrier but could prevent some streaming viewers from progressing.

The Pale Blue Eye therefore is mainly anchored by Melling’s mesmerising performance as Poe. He delivers a tour-de-force of monologues and utterances with excellent oratory skill and is often the standout in many of the scenes he stars in. A lacklustre pace may turn off some, but the film is mostly a well-crafted detective tale where the interesting characters and their conversations are far more engaging than the twists of its lethargic and sometimes absurd crime plot.

★★★½

3.5/5

Michael Sales