Murder mysteries such as “The Name of the Rose,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” or “Death on the Nile” are usually situated in well-defined, cordoned-off communities. It’s then up to the intruding outsider—the detective—to sniff out the intrigue and connections, until he manages to get hold of a loose strand of yarn and unravels the sweater of secrecy shrouding said community in untruths.
Based on a novel by Louis Bayard, director Scott Cooper’s “The Pale Blue Eye” sets the mystery at a wintry West Point Military Academy in 1830. The somber dreariness—from the misty woods to the overhanging cliffs and quiet, trickling waters—is Gothic. And yet, paradoxically, while snowy almost to the point of being shot in black and white, with its night scenes lit by candles, fireplaces, and lanterns, the setting has an atmosphere bordering on coziness.
The Murder
A West Point cadet has been found hanged, and a highly decorated police detective (Christian Bale) who lives not far hence, is reluctantly called out of retirement for the case. And soon the cat-and-mouse game is on.Bale plays detective Augustus Landor, a recent widower, with the heavily mustachioed beardfulness and weary doggedness he employs in all his 1800s roles. The pervasive melancholy in this case stems from the life of seclusion that he’s been living since the disappearance of his beloved teenage daughter Mattie (Hadley Robinson).
Landor is the gruff but reliable detective. He’s charmless, gloomy, tactless, jaded, and harbors grudges against the military institution that he’s been requested to assist. He’s opposed to the way the curriculum takes students apart before building them back up again—and has no problem voicing his opinions.
Sniffing Out the Evil Doers
Landor’s much wilier than the stuffy, by-the-book, ramrod West Point staffers Capt. Hitchcock (Simon McBurney) and the superintendent, who’ve requested his services. They demand quick answers because the honor of the academy is at stake during congressional hearings, which adds greater tension to the proceedings.
Landor is also impressed by the depth of perception demonstrated by one of the victim’s classmates, the rather eccentric Cadet Fourth Classman E.A. Poe. That would be one Edgar Allan Poe (played by Harry Melling; best known to date as Harry Potter’s chubby spoiled cousin, Dudley Dursley).
Landor “deputizes” Poe, and the mystery soon deepens when another body is discovered. And another. And some desecrated sheep and goats into the bargain, all of which, of course, add up to many red herrings.
Overall
“The Pale Blue Eye” is a plodding but engrossing watch. While mega-A-lister Bale can chew the scenery with the best of them, he generously allows himself to be upstaged by Melling’s molasses-thick, Richmond, Virginia-drawling Poe, with his scary-doll, wide-eyed, and wildly gesticulated orations.
Melling, far from Hogwarts, has since dropped his baby fat, matured, and morphed into a thespian with an odd, angular magnetism. He very much physically resembles Poe here, whether or not the puppyish version of the famous American writer is an appropriate actor choice. Between Bale and Melling, it’s a showdown of brooding charisma versus flamboyant hamming.
The film supplies many false conclusions and misleading accusations and coincidences. As the mystery deepens, Cooper maintains our uncertainty as to whether “The Pale Blue Eye” will give way to full-on supernatural horror or remain in the human realm.
It is possible to guess where it’s all headed and who the killer is, but only if you keep a very sharp lookout for the fleeting clues. It’s a pulpy paperback mystery masquerading as a leather-bound classic literary novel—one written by, say, (as the humorously disdainful young Poe puts it) “the deplorable Fenimore Cooper”—and therefore much more fun than one might think.
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