REVIEW: THE PALE BLUE EYE

3.5/5

Dancing With The Devil In The Pale Moonlight.

128 Mins. Starring: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Lucy Boynton, Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall & Robert Duvall. Director: Scott Cooper. 

Eyes on Batman dancing with the devil in you know what kind of light. Pale tones offset this prestige picture in time for awards season as Netflix does battle for the Academy with Disney +, amongst others in the post (we hope) pandemic way to watch movies after corona crippled cinema. In the red corner we have 'White Noise' and the 'Glass Onion' peeling of the purchased 'Knives Out' franchise for the world's most famous streaming service (and now this). In the Mickey blue eyes, a side Searchlight deal with Fox for favourites laying Oscar ground like 'The Banshees Of Inisherin' and the macabre meal of 'The Menu', saying yes to death by chef. Now if you want more 'Sleepy Hollow' horror this cold Winter, look no further than 'The Pale Blue Eye'. 

Dark delights straight out of a Guillermo del Toro 'Cabinet Of Curiosity' head straight for you like the forlorn fog of a 'Nightmare Alley'. As 'Out Of The Furnace', Christian Bale reunites with 'Black Mass' and 'Crazy Heart' director Scott Cooper for the third time with charm. As the two form an actor/director triple-threat partnership like David O. Russell and the 'Amsterdam' actor. Although nothing can enter the territory of one of the hallmark greatest westerns in their last collaboration (2017's 'Hostiles'). 'The Pale Blue Eye' reads through a gothic, mystery thriller adaptation of the same name by the book of Louis Bayard. A man is found hung, with his heart carved out of his chest. Forget Colonel Mustard with a pipe. Only a poet could have done this. Or that's at least what the legendary one Edgar Allen Poe thinks. On the case with Bale's emotional mastering, dark detective of the night (with one hell of a riff on a 'Goldfinger' like line), that's a far cry from Batman, is the legendary writer himself. 

John Cusack portrayed Poe in 'The Raven' of over a decade ago in 2012. Now it's the turn of a wonderful Harry Melling whose earned our forgiveness after torturing 'Harry Potter' under the stairs thanks to a 'Queen's Gambit'. Here he has bar-room candlelight, compelling chemistry with Christian who treats this young cadet like a surrogate son after the disappearance of his own daughter to a wayfaring stranger, passing through town. It's enough to keep the plodding plot of this slow Bunsen burner going. Oil to the wheels of a narrative that stays the course even when the twisting mystery of this whodunnit with more layers than a 'Glass Onion' doesn't. 

1830, West Point, New York. America may look unrecognizable, but this cast of characters doesn't (play spot the Netflix star like the 'Ozark's' Charlie Tahan). Lucy Boynton ignites the screen like she did in Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Whilst the couple of a scene stealing, 'The X-Files' legend, 'Sex Education' star and 'The Crown' taker as Margaret Thatcher, Gillian Anderson and character actor favourite Toby Jones (so good in 'The Detectorists') intrigue even more. More heft is offered from every man actor (from 'Sweeney Todd' to 'Spencer', 'Mr. Turner' actor) Timothy Spall, to the 'Crazy Heart', 'Hustle' of an almost unrecognizable (that voice) Godfather of all the greats Robert Duvall. With cast lists like this, what could go wrong? Well, there's plenty of toil and trouble and paling in comparison to some of the other Oscar fare, we know from Gray men before that Netflix big bucks doesn't always equate to home box-office success and critical praise. Yet, there's enough black magic here to give this 'Blue' movie an eye. Even if the real poetry belongs in the prose. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Raven', 'Hostiles', 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet Of Curiosities'.