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A supremely serious telling of what is actually a singularly silly story, The Pale Blue Eye remains on the right side of self-parody for over two hours, before shrugging its shoulders, cracking its knuckles, and going goblin mode in its final act. This, by the way, happens an hour after Robert Duvall has dropped by as a tattooed puzzle solver named Jean-Pepe who studies the occult in his spare time.
The Pale Blue Eye is so goofy that Rian Johnson could theoretically commandeer the same script for his third Knives Out movie, with only minor adjustments. But despite the borderline overwhelming presence of a Benoit Blanc-adjacent Southern gent in his movie, director Scott Cooper isn’t as inherently playful as Johnson. In fact, he’s spent the entirety of his directorial career making grim dramas — three of which have now starred Christian Bale.
Even the famously chameleon-like actor appears to be in a more relaxed mood here, as a grieving former policeman Augustus Landor, who is hired to investigate the murder of a military cadet in snowy upstate New York in the 1830s. Landor is described in a convenient early exposition dump as a widower who is particularly adept at ‘gloveless interrogations’.
In movies like this — or, at least the good ones — it is important for the detective to demonstrate their powers of deduction before we can buy into their legend. The exposition dump about Augustus’ achievements is not enough; we need to see him in action. Which is what Cooper does some scenes later, when he has his protagonist smugly ‘solve’ a minor mystery, purely for effect. But the investigation begins in earnest almost immediately afterwards. And before Augustus has even interrogated his third suspect, he has formed a bond with a young cadet by the name of Edgar Allen Poe, who quickly fills the Watson role.
Played by the sneakily phenomenal Harry Melling, who has developed such a stunning body of work since his Dudley Dursley days, Poe is the film’s trump card — a death-obsessed poet who sees symbols where Augustus sees science. For instance, he interprets the violent ripping out of the victim’s heart as the work of a jilted lover, perhaps. He’s someone who doesn’t take things at face value, which makes him a fun foil to the rather austere Augustus.
For all his faults — a strain of silliness runs through his movies that he pointedly refuses to acknowledge — Cooper has a knack for casting faces. The supporting cast is filled out by excellent character actors such as Tobey Jones, who plays the coroner; Simon McBurney, who plays a captain; and Timothy Spall, who drops by as the captain’s superior. Gillian Anderson and Charlotte Gainsbourg, meanwhile, appear in extended cameos as mysterious women who cross paths with Augustus in different ways, although neither is given much to do.
Cooper is a better director than a writer, that much has become clear now. His long creative partnership with cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, for instance, has yielded some memorably spare imagery over the years, in films such as Black Mass, and the rather underrated Out of the Furnace. But he really needs to loosen up a little. The only time that Cooper displays any sort of levity in this movie is in his direction of Melling. “Books!” the future literary giant exclaims in the film’s single funniest moment, running with open arms towards a stack of them at Augustus’ quarters. But these moments are few and far between.
The Pale Blue Eye, for the most part, is a B-movie with delusions of grandeur; a facsimile of A Few Good Men with a supernatural twist. It’s engagingly staged, Melling is outstanding as usual, but everyone involved is capable of better.
The Pale Blue Eye
Director – Scott Cooper
Cast – Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Simon McBurney, Gillian Anderson, Tobey Jones, Timothy Spall, Robert Duvall, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rating – 2.5/5
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