Christian Bale is obviously a man of many talents, but my favorite performances of his have always been old world gruff characters like we saw him do in the criminally underrated The Prestige. With that in mind it should come as no surprise that the trailer for Scott Cooper’s (Black Mass, Antlers) upcoming film The Pale Blue Eye has me giddy. Not only does Bale play that exact type of character, this time a grizzled detective investigating the death of a West Point cadet, but it’s brought another favorite of mine along for the ride, Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling aka Dudley from the Harry Potter franchise). Poe aides Bales Character, Detective Augustus Landor (amazing name!), throughout his investigation and will no doubt be full of little hints of Poe’s future inspirations.
The trailer paints a picture of a perfect gothic noir setting. Cold weather, dingy barrooms, dingier characters and a series of grisly murders. What the trailer doesn’t shed full light on is the stunning ensemble cast that makes up the world of The Pale Blue Eye, aside from the two I mentioned behold the nuclear talent pool making up this film; Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall. If that isn’t a recipe for a film that is, at a minimum, an interesting watch then I don’t know what is.
The last thing I’ll say before we roll onto the footage, Bale has a severely underappreciated performance aspect…his ability to grow momentous facial hair. Seriously, check out the ‘stache on this chap…I will be so disappointed if I find out it’s fake.
Check out the trailer below and look for The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix and in select theaters on January 6th, 2023!
Official Synopsis:
A world-weary detective is hired to investigate the murder of a West Point 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.
