The Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper, 2022)

[DarkImbecile]

I've been a bit of a booster for some unloved Scott Cooper films (Hostiles and Out of the Furnace) in the past, so I was looking forward to The Pale Blue Eye, which marks his latest collaboration with Christian Bale, another stacked cast (Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, and Robert Duvall), and an adaptation of a well-regarded historical mystery novel. Unfortunately, this was pretty mediocre, as gloomy and atmospheric as those other films, but without the dense characterization or sweep that made them work for me, and particularly disappointing for barely making use of the best of those stellar supporting players — Duvall is barely present even in the two scenes he appears in, while Gainsbourg and Spall are given almost nothing of interest to do.

Surprisingly, the plot gimmick the film is built around — a young Edgar Allan Poe caught up in a murder mystery during his abortive time as an officer candidate at West Point — is far and away its most successful component, almost entirely due to Melling absolutely nailing the part as a weird ball of ego and awkwardness, artistic ambition and alienation. Honestly, he'd be more than deserving of awards attention in a slightly better film, one that better handled the awkward structure necessary to deliver its final twist and didn't feel the need to lead the audience by the hand quite so often. The culmination of Boynton and Jones' arc in particular falls flat and drains any power that might have been culled from the far more interesting resolution to Bale's mournful detective character.

Cooper's definitely developed a distinctive style as a storyteller, for better and worse, and shown a knack for gathering a lot of talent for his projects, but he'd be better served if at all possible by avoiding the flattening visual and narrative requirements of working for the streamers (or at least Netflix in particular).

[Mr Sausage]

I've been a bit of a booster for some unloved Scott Cooper films (Hostiles and Out of the Furnace) in the past, so I was looking forward to The Pale Blue Eye, which marks his latest collaboration with Christian Bale, another stacked cast (Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, and Robert Duvall), and an adaptation of a well-regarded historical mystery novel. Unfortunately, this was pretty mediocre, as gloomy and atmospheric as those other films, but without the dense characterization or sweep that made them work for me, and particularly disappointing for barely making use of the best of those stellar supporting players — Duvall is barely present even in the two scenes he appears in, while Gainsbourg and Spall are given almost nothing of interest to do.

Surprisingly, the plot gimmick the film is built around — a young Edgar Allan Poe caught up in a murder mystery during his abortive time as an officer candidate at West Point — is far and away its most successful component, almost entirely due to Melling absolutely nailing the part as a weird ball of ego and awkwardness, artistic ambition and alienation. Honestly, he'd be more than deserving of awards attention in a slightly better film, one that better handled the awkward structure necessary to deliver its final twist and didn't feel the need to lead the audience by the hand quite so often. The culmination of Boynton and Jones' arc in particular falls flat and drains any power that might have been culled from the far more interesting resolution to Bale's mournful detective character.

Cooper's definitely developed a distinctive style as a storyteller, for better and worse, and shown a knack for gathering a lot of talent for his projects, but he'd be better served if at all possible by avoiding the flattening visual and narrative requirements of working for the streamers (or at least Netflix in particular).

This was fun for about forty-five minutes, especially with Poe livening the muted and sedate atmosphere with his odd presence. But after the first act, the movie just...sits there. When it should be ratcheting up it seems instead to lose focus, not setting up any good suspects or revealing tantalizing clues. It wastes Poe on an unconvincing romance, one needed but not much redeemed by its ending, instead of developing his relationship with the Bale character. And, like you say, the movie is stuffed with talent who leave no impression (Melling excepted). There's a fun buddy detective movie in here somewhere, but it's weighed down by a need to be a prestige drama full of heft and gravity.

[Persona]

THE PALE BLUE EYE

One of those prestige-ish genre pictures where the production values and acting and cinematography and music are all plenty good enough individually but don't really make sense when put together. I honestly am not sure what exactly Cooper was trying to do with this one. He goes for a bit of vibes but definitely doesn't go all in there, picture is far too talky and plot-driven for that. Doesn't really go for the rhythm and momentum of a thriller, either. Not detailed/grounded enough to hook as a procedural and the mystery never really feels that intriguing or novel. The script has some eccentric touches, especially as concerns the Poe character, but Cooper presents all of that stuff in such a flat way it doesn't really give you anything other than watching Melling play a renowned weirdo. It's not bad, I don't hate it, but yeah I'm a little disappointed that this didn't turn out to be more of something.