The Pale Blue Eye - Netflix- Christian Bale

Agent Coulson

A good eerie feeling to the teaser trailer,

Selected cinema's from December 26th and Netflix from January 6th

Christian Bale stars.

West Point, 1830. A world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7tpfLV4-TQ&ab_channel=Netflix

pixelburp

Looks intriguing, I wonder if there'll be much of a horror element - given its inclusion of Allen-Poe as a primary character. It's funny how historical American films can happily hire Brits without needing a change of accent.

And shoutout to Harry Melling; he has made a tidy little acting career. Rarely anything especially noteworthy or headlining but solid - and that's probably why he rarely gets noted as an ex Harry Potter actor who did good.

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119804918#Comment_119804918

This could catapult Harry given he is playing Poe

pixelburp

Proper trailer out for this:

https://youtu.be/ddbL9jvg77w

MisterAnarchy

Looks good.

Very few movies of this genre being made nowadays which is a pity.

Agent Coulson

Yeah really like the feel to that.

pixelburp

This is out now on Netflix.

Mixed reception on this one it seems.

Snake Plisken

I really enjoyed it. Great atmosphere Bale excellent as usual and a great performance by Harry Melling as Edger Allan Poe. Not for everyone but I certainly enjoyed this murder/mystery tale more then the overly contrived Glass Onion that I watch last weekend.

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077132#Comment_120077132

That’s a fair comparison to Glass Onion. This is far more substance over style. Enjoyed it too.

I thought Melling’s acting was a bit over the top at times but his character was the oddball, poet and his physical acting was great.

pixelburp

Watched this this evening and it's almost aggressively dull. A very handsome picture by all accounts, and one that was full of atmosphere, with its candlelit rooms and frigid snow-suffocated landscapes; but the central mystery was pretty uninteresting, and not helped by a sometimes disjointed, stilted structure of the film itself. Scenes just came off like they were cobbled together, nothing seemed to flow with any natural ryhtym.

The range of acting was all over the place: Bale was OK, mostly playing it with that tortured whisper of his, getting a little hammy in places when asked to emote. Henry Melling was pretty memorable, basically shouldering the whole film's appeal through heroic, oddball energy that was often at odds with the rest of the picture. Gillian Anderson was just ham all the way down, while I wasn't sure what Timothy Spall was up to.

So great to look at, but almost nothing going on under the surface.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120087796#Comment_120087796

Yeah i switched it off a third of the way through. Looks great, eminently dull with some scenes indulgently slow without reason.

OwaynOTT

Felt like sleepy hollow without the flying flaming pumpkins.

I enjoyed it though

MisterAnarchy

Got around to watching it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Beautifully shot, good acting for the most part (Gillian Anderson apart) and a good story.

Bale is quality as always.

Caquas

Finally got around to watching this. The production was superb, a convincing recreation of America in the 1830s with a fine cast who, for the most part, did their best with their roles.

The twists in this tale are presumably meant to evoke the gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe but their effect was bizarre and confusing rather than disturbing and captivating. The final twist makes the whole affair seem a far-fetched contrivance.

And in the end, I just didn’t feel strongly about the fate of the characters.

I imagine this is why there were no Oscar nominations, not even in technical categories, for this lavish production.

I think this is typical of the current era when huge resources and great talent are expended on films that lack weight and credibility (Lost Daughter and Banshees come to mind, I’m not even wholly convinced by EEAAO though it at least had sufficient energy and commitment to carry the plot.)