Reviews

“The Pale Blue Eye” (Netflix) Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla). #ThePaleBlueEye

“The Pale Blue Eye” (Netflix) Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla). #ThePaleBlueEye

West Point, 1830. In the early hours of a gray winter morning, a cadet is found dead. But after the body arrives at the morgue, tragedy becomes savagery when it’s discovered that the young man’s heart has been skillfully removed. Fearing irreparable damage to the fledgling military academy, its leaders turn to a local detective, Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), to solve the murder. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, Landor enlists the help of one of their own to pursue the case, an eccentric cadet with a disdain for the rigors of the military and a penchant for poetry — a young man named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).

I have to admit that coming into hitting play on the Screener when I got it I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the movie if anything I believe that the underlying reason I wanted to see the movie was that it was a Scott Cooper movie and because Christian Bale was that’s part of the project, but that’s about it I had no clue what the movie was about I really didn’t pay much attention to the promotions for the trailer so I just went in blind to see what I would find.

Now with that out of the way on paper, with a casting as huge as this movie has not only talking about Christian Bale we are also talking about Harry Melling. Toby Jones, Lucy Boynton, Gillian Anderson & Robert Duvall, you would think that preparing like this would make more noise take it into consideration that is a project also produced and directed, and written by Scott Cooper and distributed by Netflix which means that to me one of the things that surprised me the most is they’re feeling that this movie for the one to the right or regarding what the last movies that release at the end of 2022 and it’s basically being released at the beginning of 2023 in the streaming service it will be a surprise and anything I didn’t it didn’t make too much noise because this movie changed in many places and we’ll dive on those right now.

The story is one we have seen many times before and the detective gets hired to investigate a murder we are taken through different scenes to deviate our attention from who may be the suspected killers do it get all caught up in the story and in the action and one of the things that this movie shines the most in their first two acts are those two specific things. Once and when we start you get brought in into the murder, we see the investigative guy coming to the scene, and then after that, or we’re seeing the process of the investigation getting all the pieces together and having the audience be part of this investigation. For these first two acts Scott Cooper does a great job at keeping you hooked do you absolutely feel invested in the story and what is happening to the characters because of the way it’s written you are extremely interested in what role Edgar Allan Poe really had to play in everything that happens, so they would make you believe as if he was it’s really involved in the murders.

And the story worked so well in these first two acts, and everything clicked for what director writer-director Scott Cooper was doing because most of Christian Bale and Harry Melling played off each other. The chemistry between the two of them when they were in the scene but impeccable you could see that each other brought out the best of them when it came to the roles. And even though we have an amazing cast it is impossible not to recognize that both Christian Bale and Harry Melling carried the film from start to finish. And if you need a reason to watch this film even though you may agree with me that the ending is not what we expect or make too much sense I believe this first hour and a half of this film is just amazing.

And to add to the performances by these two actors I couldn’t forget myself if I didn’t mention the amazing job the production designers did the makeup and hairstyling people in creating the times where the theme of the story is based. it is amazing how sometimes these people don’t get enough credit for what they do and how important is their work to make sure that the story stands the test of time for what the writers and directors are trying to do.

Yet all the hard work from these people and the performances from these actors to me gets wasted because when we’re building this tension between the two characters and the story and this murder only by the third act he got 180-turn and without diving into spoilers turning this movie into a murder revenge story that while the motives of the murder revenge maybe there I feel there didn’t develop strong enough for them to have an impact in the story as a whole.

In the end, this is a movie worth watching the first hour and a half keeps you hooked and the performances by the two leads are great. The production people did amazing work and deserve all the credit in the world even though everything ends in a really head-scratching way that makes you want to come back and revisit the story just to see what piece of the puzzle did you miss.

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap