Photo © Netflix
Christian Bale in 'The Pale Blue Eye'
Christian Bale in 'The Pale Blue Eye'
Strange doings at West Point bring New York detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) out of retirement and into a murder investigation that takes several odd turns. Set in 1830, The Pale Blue Eye is also an imaginative portrait of a young Edgar Allan Poe, then a cadet at the academy (and one year before his expulsion).
The imp of the perverse runs amok among the Corps of Cadets as one gruesome murder follows another. The weird twist is that the hearts of the victims have been removed. Poe, when deep in his cups, suggests a clue to Landor. The murderer could be a poet, for the heart is a symbol, and to cut out a heart “is to traffic in symbols.” Is the future author of such macabre tales as “The Tell-Tale Heart” the killer?
The concept is clever, given that Poe is responsible for inventing the modern detective story with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and its cerebral sleuth Auguste Dupin. The screenplay credits Poe’s romantic obsession, Lea (Lucy Boynton), as the inspiration for his poem “Lenore” (“Ah, broken is the golden bowl!—the spirit flown forever!”). Landor brings Poe along on a visit to his old professor friend, Jean Pepe (Robert Duvall), the sort of guy who may have “pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.” Naturally, a raven is spotted on a tree branch.
Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) directed and wrote The Pale Blue Eye based on the mystery novel by Louis Bayard. The cinematography is hauntingly mood setting. Landor steps into an icehouse world, a wintry gray campus of cold stone buildings set in a thick forest of bare trees. Frost-hued fog rises at night and the interiors are dark enclaves furtively lit by candles and whale oil lanterns.
Bale is solid as a serious looking man with a mirthless laugh, nursing obscure grievances that become clear in the end. As Poe, Harry Melling gives an odd performance as an awkward Southern gentleman with staring eyes. The top-drawer supporting cast includes Gillian Anderson as the matriarch of a sinister family associated with West Point, Charlotte Gainsbourg as a barmaid and Timothy Spall, complete with Captain Crunch hat, plays the academy’s curmudgeonly commandant.
The Pale Blue Eye is streaming on Netflix.
