I saw The Pale Blue Eye...

The Pale Blue Eye references Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", but in this fictional/historical, cinematic spinoff, based on the popular novel by Louis Bayard, Christian Bale portrays wizened detective Augustus Landor (cut from the Auguste Dupin cloth), who assists the aimed-for-immortality author, portrayed by Harry Melling, to decipher a troubling, West Point death. 

Written and directed by Scott (Hostiles) Cooper, Pale Blue Eye is rich in mood and does, indeed, play upon Poe's penchant for disturbing intrigue. In this instance, we're given Cadet Leroy Fry, who apparently hanged himself, but to inject the unsettling turn with a extra-morbid twist, his heart was removed after the lamentable fact. How Poe-esque! 

Landor remains center stage throughout the story, and reputedly Cooper had Bale in mind for Bayard's committed, if not heartbroken and vengeful character when he adapted the book: a shrewd move, since Bale emotes the apt determination for such a persona (much like Bale accomplished in Hostiles and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy). This ensures the frequent Rue Morgue-ish proceedings to remain identifiable and enthralling. 

Melling's Poe is a treat, as well: nuanced and quirky, just as most would perceive the renowned raconteur to have been. Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey and Lucy Boynton (an ersatz Lenore) are equally effective in offsetting the morose events as the highbrow Marquis clan, who according to Landor, "act like people who are guilty of something." (Such distinguished performers as Robert Duvall, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Timothy Spall, Hadley Robinson and Simon McBurney augment the supporting cast, all to its flavored advantage.) 

The story's uncovered tiers are fascinating, but the film's atmosphere, shaken and stirred by Masanobu Takayanagi's overcast photography and Howard Shore's sinister score, acts as much a character as the principals, giving the circumstances an unswerving chill and credible period-piece (1830) relegation. 

Inevitably, Pale Blue Eye will be compared to James McTeigue's The Raven, another movie featuring Poe in a fictional/investigative context, but unlike that serial-killer jaunt, Pale Blue Eye is nowhere near as abstract, playing more on elementary crime-solving to dispatch its tidied, cult-linked premise. (Its tell-tale allusions only add to its rudimentary yet haunting complexion.) 

For those who've been itching for a new Poe movie prior to Netflix's upcoming House of Usher miniseries, Pale Blue Eye will fill the bill. I, for one, admire Cooper's approach and hope to revisit his offering soon for further analysis. 

Catch Pale Blue Eye on Netflix starting January 6, or if one lacks a subscription, view it at those select theaters which have extended the film's "limited", Christmas release.