The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Poe Tips

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This period mystery has a few flaws in its logic, but its stellar cast, some good twists, and a crisp, wintry atmosphere add up to a sturdy, bleak movie that should pair well with a hot mug of cocoa.

It's 1830, and detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) has been summoned to West Point Military Academy. A cadet named Leroy Fry has been found hanged by the neck, but worse, his heart has been surgically removed from his chest. As he begins investigating these crimes, Landor discovers that the Academy is eager to protect their reputation and to cover up any nasty business.

Landor is approached by cadet E.A. Poe (Harry Melling), who offers his opinions on the killings. Landor decides to enlist Poe's help, hopefully using his macabre poet's mind to get more of the inside dirt on the goings-on of the academy. But what they eventually uncover is far darker than anyone could have guessed.

Based on a novel by Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye isn't exactly the kind of movie that viewers will be able to solve; it's not clue-oriented like Death on the Nile or Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery are. And it has one major element that doesn't exactly make sense (which can't be explained without giving too much away). But nevertheless, thanks to unfussy direction by journeyman filmmaker Scott Cooper, it's satisfying to watch all of the pieces click together, especially in locations like a creepy icehouse and a tavern lit by flickering candles stuck to tables by mounds of wax.

The casting of Melling (formerly Harry Potter's Dudley Dursley) as Poe is inspired, and he's quite a character, a cunning and loquacious Southern gentleman, and a perfect compliment to Bale's serious, dispirited detective. Gillian Anderson gets some laughs as the slightly improper wife of the school's doctor (Toby Jones), and Robert Duvall has a couple of potent scenes as a scholar of the occult, surrounded by shelves full of ancient tomes.

Timothy Spall and Simon McBurney play stern officers at the Academy, Charlotte Gainsbourg is an earthy barmaid and part-time lover of Landor, and Lucy Boynton is the pretty sister of one cadet who catches Poe's eye. This cast strikes sparks off of each other, and ensures that, in The Pale Blue Eye, there's always something interesting to see.