Moving Pictures

‘The Pale Blue Eye’ sees Harry Melling darkly shining as Edgar Allan Poe

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

I often think about Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s pioneering literary accomplishments, his tragic life, and his mysterious death mean that the story of the man behind “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” never really resolves. Every Halloween season I think about that cat trapped in the wall and the horrors of tuberculosis. Poe was so poor as a young college student that he famously burned his own furniture to stay warm. Poe struggled with poverty and homelessness and alcoholism, and there’s also a theory that Poe was sick with rabies when he lay dying — literally in a Baltimore gutter — at the age of 40.

We’re a few seasons away from the ghoulish charms of October, but Netflix has gone full melancholia with a new dark detective story that’s tied to Poe’s biography and features the first great acting performance of the year. The Pale Blue Eye hit theaters on Dec. 23 before debuting on Netflix on Jan. 6. So, technically, this is a 2022 film. But I’m predicting a slow burn for this one, and I expect The Pale Blue Eye to pick up a lot of fans on the streaming platform in the new year.

The movie is based on Louis Bayard’s 2003 novel of the same name. It’s a murder mystery — Poe invented the detective story — set at West Point where Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) is in his last year at the military academy in 1830, just like the real Poe. Writer-director Scott Cooper adapts Bayard’s book into a moody, Gothic, occult tale drenched in blue wintertime light. Christian Bale stars as a reluctant detective named Augustus Landor who’s brought to the academy to see a corpse.

Bale and Cooper have previously teamed-up on Out of the Furnace and Hostilities , and Bale is predictably very good here in a brooding, but multifaceted, performance that’s full of nuances viewers will overlook before certain revelations in the third act. Landor’s disheveled demeanor, quiet disposition and reputation as a heavy drinker don’t inspire confidence despite his reputation as a talented case cracker. Landor is world-weary with grief for his missing daughter and he hesitates to investigate the mutilation of a young cadet who committed suicide.

The Pale Blue Eye is a bit grisly with some spooky occult elements, but the real mysteries Landor uncovers are the secrets of the characters in this cast and all the connections between them. And that’s the real strength of this actorly murder tale that includes Toby Jones as a weird West Point doctor and Gillian Anderson as his haughty naughty wife. The most fun casting is Robert Duvall as an occult expert named Jean-Pepe who assists Landor after the detective discovers ritualistic symbols at a murder scene. I love any excuse to bring in the “occult expert” in a thriller movie, and Duvall doesn’t disappoint.

The best performance in this film about acting performances is entirely locked-up by Melling who is mesmerizing as Poe. Melling’s bony, almost skull-like face is framed in a dramatic tangle of dark curling hair and topped with a black stovepipe hat. He looks like he just stepped out of Victorian-era New England or out of a tintype photograph of Poe himself. Melling and Cooper’s Poe is verbose and articulate, and he’s as obsessed with poetry and the sickly sister of one of his fellow cadets as he is with helping Landor to solve the murder mystery at the academy. Of course, the weird oddball Poe is also one of the suspects.

The Pale Blue Eye is a slow-burn of a film that doesn’t feature an acrobatic camera or action set pieces. This is a movie that takes place in the space between actors, and in between their lines. It’s a movie about characters who are trying to get to know one another in the dark, cold place they’ve all brought their secrets to.

The Pale Blue Eye is currently streaming on Netflix

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/ songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.