Murder Mystery, The Pale Blue Eye (2022) | Review

1830, in the early hours of a winter morning a young cadet is found dead. After his body is found, panic travels fast as it is discovered his heart has been skilfully removed. The academy leaders turn to local detective, Augustus Landor (Bale), to solve the murder. Landor turns to one of the academies own, an eccentric cadet with a passion for poetry. I thought it necessary to outline the narrative in more detail because the plot itself is rather sporadic and a little confused. The viewing experience was enjoyable thanks to the performances but the feature itself was choppy and slightly incoherent.

A beautiful vision from a successful director, The Pale Blue Eye has a talented cast, a compelling central plot and an intriguing commentary on Edgar Allen Poe’s fascination with death and imagery. The historic through line makes the film somewhat interesting, seeing Harry Melling’s interpretation of the historic figure was intriguing and I found his performance to be the stand out. The Pale Blue Eye is a slow progression for very little satisfaction at the end.

I found the story to develop increasingly slowly which encouraged me to loose interest a few times during its overdrawn runtime of two hours. If this feature was shortened and narrowed down it could have been far more engaging but instead it was trying to impress with its visuals and long scenes of snowy landscapes and suspicious stares.