This movie confused me. But not with its story or twists. It confused me how can this stunning film with such a great pedigree be so boring and mediocre. When you have Christian Bale in the leading role, one of the supporting characters plays young Edgar Allan Poe, and it’s a murder mystery (wannabe) thriller. This movie should have been something outstanding! Instead, we get a sluggish drama/mystery, and by the time the ending happens, you are no longer interested in the resolution.
Let’s start with the positives; The Pale Blue Eye has an amazing cast. From Christian to Harry Melling, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, Robert Duvall and Charlotte Gainsbourg, these actors usually guarantee an excellent time, but in this movie, not so much. Sure, Christian does his standard (he is never bad), and Harry plays the young Poe well, but nobody stands out. They all do a fine job, which is a shame, given all these actors are usually more than “fine”. The one thing that is outstanding in this movie is the cinematography. This film has some stunning shots, especially in the dark (and given most of this film is quite dark, that’s a crucial redeeming quality), and Masanobu Takayanagi did an excellent job. If I were to at least consider recommending this film, it would be due to his work and his work only, as some of these shots… chef’s kiss.
As alluded to above, this movie’s biggest issue was its pacing. I am no stranger to slowly paced films; on the opposite, I tend to defend those films as not everything should be fast. Some films must take their time to work, to convey their message or for us to sympathize with the movie’s characters. However, The Pale Blue Eye simply isn’t it. The film seemed bloated; the main storyline wasn’t as intriguing as it should have been, and the ending… I won’t go into spoilers, but I will hint at some things, so tread carefully.
The film leads you to this one path, where everything seems to be finished, wrapped up, only for it to be another 30 minutes because we had to have a twist ending. But did we tho? Did we really need it? Maybe one of the biggest reasons; why this film didn’t work was the “twist” did nothing for me. Sure, it is explained and makes sense, but why should we care? The thing about twist endings is they should pack a punch; they should hit you with something. And this film just tells you the actual reason; how all these murders have happened and why. But given everything we have learned before that moment, it isn’t as big of a shock. So, that element of “surprise”, that shock simply wasn’t there.
Another thing about that ending was, if you had this plan from the beginning, did we really need those extra 20/30 minutes? Wouldn’t it be best for the film to end with everybody thinking the actual killer(s) were punished and only for us to see that it wasn’t them? And for the sake of argument, for young Poe to realise it whilst we are learning about it too and for the film to end like that, rather than how it ended? A perfect example of what I am thinking is the end of The Illusionist (2006), where the detective realises, based on all the clues, what has actually happened. But he didn’t “catch” anyone because they are long gone, so he is almost “proud” of how they got away with it. I would have loved that kind of ending rather than what we get here, where we see what happens and then have a conversation about it.
Also, when you have a character of young Edgar Allan Poe in your film, and he kind of is “just there”, you know there is a problem. I need to repeat myself I think Harry Melling did a good job portraying his character; this isn’t a jibe at his performance. This is more of a complaint about the script that seems to want to have young Poe in the film, throw some of his references (raven) into some scenes and call it a day like this case inspired his entire life. I don’t know about you, but that seems a bit simplistic to me. If his character had been more fleshed out, it might have worked then, but in this film, he could have been named James Miller III.; and there would be no difference.
Overall, The Pale Blue Eye had all the potential to be a great, gritty, dark, historical drama/mystery thriller. But instead of leaning into the darkness/horror, it leaned more into the drama and worked against itself; it made itself feel long, bloated and dull. I love slow-burners if they lead somewhere, and this film leads us straight to a twist that just leaves you to say: “Ok, and that’s it?” It’s one of the most “perfectly average” films I have seen in ages. What separates it is the A-list cast and stunning camera work. I am tempted to say just for the camera work alone, it may be worth watching, but I will leave it up to you, as I can’t recommend this to anyone with a clean conscience.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke