Un oeil bleu pâle

Bale's flinty Victorian detective finds his odd-couple match in Harry Melling as a young Edgar Allan Poe, even if this atmospheric thriller can't stick the landing.

Harry Melling (as Poe) and Christian Bale lead an impressive ensemble in Scott Cooper's atmospheric whodunit.

Harry Melling plays Poe like a Benoit Blanc in training, but the film's mystery never catches fire.

The distinguished cast notwithstanding, the real star is Masanobu Takayanagi's bleak and chilly cinematography, with a vein of malevolence laced throughout the imagery that's fed by Howard Shore's stately orchestral score. But those two elements end up doing a disproportionate amount of the atmospheric work, highlighting the deficiencies of the writing, direction and performances.

A solidly built mystery, The Pale Blue Eye crumbles in the underwhelming third act, which doesn't deliver a resolution that fits the complexity of the crime presented. While still a very well-made film, this is not nearly what I had hoped it would be.

Côté interprétation, Christian Bale est complètement éteint, Gillian Anderson est si fofolle qu'elle semble évoluer dans un autre film et Charlotte Gainsbourg joue les utilités. Seul Harry Melling semble vraiment habité par son rôle de Poe.