The Pale Blue Eye Netflix Movie Review

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Watch The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Scott Cooper (written for the screen by), Louis Bayard (based on the book by) 
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Robert Duvall, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A world-weary detective hired to investigate the murder of a West Point cadet is stymied by the cadets' 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.

Verdict
This was a movie I was glad when it finally ended. Intrigued by the premise, the narrative doesn't live up to expectations.The core mystery isn't interesting as it's fodder to force a relationship between Poe and a detective. This never builds either characters particularly well. The movie plods along until the big ending, but while it is interesting it's not enough.
Skip it.

Review
This is not based on a true story. While Poe did attend West Point in 1830, it was only a few months before he was kicked out. The pale blue eye is a reference to Poe's famous short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart," and is also referenced in the movie.

Christian Bale plays Agustus Landor

Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is a retired detective called upon to investigate a crime at West Point. It's not the student's death he's there to solve, it's what happened after. Landor gets a lot of bluster from the school administration and few answers. Landor meets student Edgar Poe (Harry Melling) at a bar and they determine an understanding. Poe will help Landor for the sake of the plot. Maybe it's because Poe is intrigued by the case, but if that's true the movie doesn't do a good job of establishing that.

Harry Melling, Lucy Boynton play Edgar Poe, Lea Marquis

I expected more from this movie. There isn't much of a mystery to follow. The duo stumble into clues and through scenes. That makes this boring, as nothing seems to fit together. Landor and Poe get to the next clue because the movie needs them to, not because they're doing any detective work. It's like we're missing every other scene. Neither the characters or mystery provide us a reason to care. I puzzled over the issue. Is it the setting? The characters? I assumed Poe would help Landor because he's an outcast, but this doesn't do a good job of establishing that. The mystery is how lucky these two are in figuring out what happened. Both characters have a propensity for running into the exact person they need at the town bar. It's quite the coincidence.

SPOILERS

This movie plods along apparently waiting for the big finale. It's an ending that almost makes me want to watch this again just to see the cracks in the mystery, but I'm not going back. This wasn't near enough the first time to warrant a second viewing. There's two plot threads at work here, and the problem is that with only one of them this story falters. With both of them it seems like a bit much.

 

After the big reveal, I assume Landor couldn't have known he'd be hired to investigate the crime he committed. I wish the movie had attempted to validate that. It's another of many coincidences. The dark ritual siblings that happen to be looking for a human heart but unwilling to kill for it and finding Landor's crime scene is a ridiculous coincidence. How did they expect to find a heart? They randomly stumble upon this body and just happen to have all the necessary tools. This big reveal falters when you think about it for any length of time. There's a story here, and I'm guessing trying to follow the book hurt this. While Landor certainly isn't a mastermind, this needed to make him more of one or have him on the edge of getting caught by Poe. With Landor investigating his own crimes, it explains why he was able to stumble through the case, but why didn't Poe have more questions about how Landor was able to do anything. This could have set this up as a a bumbling Landor and astute Poe or even let us in on the secret and have the tension of the movie be Landor trying to hide the crime while stringing Poe along.