A Pale Blue Eye is a Dark Slow Dream
A Pale Blue Eye, the new film on Netflix, is a slow burn with a good twist that is beautiful to watch. Based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. This murder mystery set in the 1830s at West Point Academy along the Hudson River in Upstate New York is one of those movies that slowly pulls you into the mood. This is not an action movie in any way but a thinking movie where it gives you clues to solve the mystery slowly and tries to develop the characters (sometimes successfully and sometimes not enough) to draw you into the story.
The story takes a bit for you to engage with, but when it does, it pulls you into a tale worth your time. The threads of the plot may at first seem raggedy and bare, but by the end, it is woven into a well-crafted mystery with a few surprises. It is a thinking movie with clues everywhere if you know where to look, and after seeing it, you may want to go back and see where they are in various places. There is even a great nod to Edgar Allen Poe's future writing with a great shot of a raven.
The film starring Christian Bale as the widowed detective and Harry Melling as his young assistant, namely one Edgar Allen Poe, are tasked with solving grisly murders of cadets from the famous academy. The performances of both actors are impeccable. Harry Melling's Poe is engaging and delicious, making you understand the future romantic writer's background. And as always, Christian Bale puts every bit of his soul into everything he does. His transformative acting always surprises. Here, he is dark and foreboding with angst from the loss of his missing daughter. They carry this movie on their big broad shoulders effortlessly. Gillian Anderson is also featured in the film though her scenes are way too brief and few. I would have loved to have seen more of her in the story, as she is fabulous and commands every scene she is in. The rest of the cast is also excellent, with familiar faces and wonderful characters.
Where the film caught my eye from the very beginning is the amazing art direction. Everything is purposely in a pale blue pallet with splashes of diminished gold and hints of faded red. The film is dreamy and cold in its winter setting from beginning to end, consistent in its color pallet, with more red coming through towards the end when the plot unravels. Once I noticed the colors, I couldn't help looking at them as the film progressed. The costumes and millinery (hats), in particular, are also incredible, keeping with the same colors, and are works of art throughout. Even the hair design is fantastic, the women's styles are delicious, and after looking at a later photograph of Mr. Poe is duplicated his wild hair perfectly.
If I have anything negitive to say about A Pale Blue Eye, it would be that, at times, the film is too dark. It was hard to see a few of the scenes on my TV. I understand the desire to make them look like everything was lit by candlelight. And made the film feel like some of the famous writer's stories. But sometimes, a little artificial lighting would have helped. This film is slow and methodical in its storytelling and sometimes hard to understand due to accents and possibly heavy acting. But, as with Shakespeare's plays, you slip into the film's voice after a while, and the language becomes much clearer. A good friend suggested that putting the subtitles on might sometimes help you get through the language.
In the end, I enjoyed A Pale Blue Eye. It left me a bit haunted, as it should, making it have the feel of something Edgar Allen Poe might have had a hand in. The final reveal was not where it saw it going, which was a good thing, and it made me think about the film's plot and where I missed the clues, wanting me to rewatch it. Mr. Poe once "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" it's a good quote for this film as it felt like a dream in all the right ways. This is a well, crafted film worth a gander.