Review: The Pale Blue Eye

I might not get naturally excited for a new Scott Cooper feature. But I remain intrigued with whatever what he and his team have in store this time. 

Cooper is known for his works to have a dark image and sometimes even darker narratives. I'm usually fine with Cooper's films. Sometimes they can be a bit too serious that it forgets to be entertaining. But on the whole I usually like whatever makes. Especially his directorial debut 'Crazy Heart' from 2009.

This one might not be his most barbaric. But it still has a grim and cold colour palette and some disturbing violence. From the word go, it looks spectacular. There is a great sense of unease and with the narrative involving an unsolved mystery, the way it develops may be slow but it remains intriguing.

Christian Bale in the lead role is as captivating as ever. The way Bale transforms himself with every character he is given continues to impress me and he is no different in this latest piece.

Harry Melling does a great job. So much so that I felt he comfortably matched Bale's efforts whenever they were interacting on-screen together. Their on-screen chemistry was a big surprise and one of the biggest strength's of this film. Since his time in the Harry Potter franchise, Melling is one of the few from that film series that has further enhanced their back catalogue with some interesting project choices.

Gillian Anderson is clearly having a good time with her character and milking it for all its worth and it certainly worked for me.

As briefly mentioned earlier, the production and overall look of the film is impressive. There is a clear aim to make the atmosphere of the film as bleak and chilling as you could get whilst also giving some lavish costumes and eye-catching locations. So in terms of making it an immersive experience, Cooper and his team did a pretty solid job in achieving that. It makes you feel unsettled and never sure what's going to happen next.

However, the pacing for the most part is slow and at times it is hard to keep your interest outside of the imagery. There are moments when it kicks into gear. But if I was being cruel, you're clinging on to the atmosphere and hoping the story moves along.

Even with the slow pacing, I felt this was a pretty solid watch. The story is told in enough of an interesting way to keep you engaged, the performances are solid across the board and the atmosphere and overall production design is on point. A nice mystery thriller that while it would have looked nice on the big screen, it made the right decision of going with a Netflix release.

Rating: 7/10