"A Pale Blue Eye" held a personal fascination for Yours truly after reading a few reviews . One of the fictional/non-fictional characters is a West Point Cadet named Edgar Allan Poe. According to the Leonard family tree (Maternal Grandparents), EA Poe is a relative. As is John Dos Passos.
Is writing talent genetic?
No.
An ability to sit still for long periods of time is not a DNA embed, but is required, and if patience ain't a virtue, don't bother.
Christian Bale is Augustus Landor, a private citizen and detective, ensconced in a cottage on the Hudson Valley, and not far from West Point Military Academy. An Army cadet named Leroy Fry is found hanged on the institution's property. Two senior officers are forced by government oversight to engage the services of a non-Army investigator.
Hence, the requisition of Augustus Landor.
Landor discovers, GASP!, foul play. The hanging, though not staged, isn't a suicide. It is the work of some nefarious murderer, and one that might be tied to the weird Army doctor (Toby Jones as Dr. Marquis. Toby Jones is just plain weird anyway, so why not here?), and his weird family.
Weird and lascivious wife, Julia (Gillian Anderson, who just gets better every time she's on camera.)
Weird and creepy son, Artemus (Henry Lawty).
Weird and seductive daughter, Lea (Lucy Boynton).
Landor (Bale) fights through military bureaucracy, cattle mutilation, another murder, amateur surgery, cardiac disappearance, bad lighting, Satanic rituals, a senile Bobby Duvall, and what appears to be a nearly predictable script.
But gratitude in spades to Edgar Allan Poe (An Academy Award winning performance by Henry Melling), who uncovers a murder of convenience has taken place at some point during the two hour film.
But why? Why this cadet? Why, I should say, these cadets? Who would want them dispatched in such a horrific fashion? Landor does find out, but it ain't whatcha think.
Special nod to Timothy Spall, crooked teeth via the British NIH and all, who is, ahem, spell-binding just by showing up and bringing his topographical map of a face with him. He plays second in command at West Point, and is the LAST officer any soldier wants to see at reveille.
Netflix.
Comments