Movie Review The Pale Blue Eye

The Pale Blue Eye (2022) 

Directed by Scott Cooper

Written by Scott Cooper 

Starring Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Robert Duvall 

Release Date December 23rd, 2022 

Netflix Release Date January 6th, 2022 

Pale Blue Eye stars Christian Bale as Detective Augustus Landor. Detective Landor lives in upstate New York, not far from the famed campus of the West Point Military Academy. It's 1830 and as we join the story, Detective Landor has received guests at his cottage. The visitor is Captain Hitchcock (Simon McBurney) and he has distressing news. There has been a murder on the campus and the leadership at West Point, headed up by Superintendent Player (Tim Spall) wishes to hire Landor to investigate. 

At the scene of the crime a West Point cadet is hanging from a tree. One might assume a suicide but one important detail removes that possibility. The young victims heart has been cut from his chest. Stranger still, a young cadet who found the body claimed that the body had been hanging there when he arrived but the victim's heart hadn't yet been removed. Landor accepts the job of investigating the death and sets to work with minor aid from a West Point physician, Dr. Daniel Marquis (Toby Jones) who performs a perfunctory autopsy. 

The case takes a strange detour when Landor meets an odd young cadet named E.A Poe, Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling). The awkward and melancholy Poe has a theory that the murderer must be a poet as the cutting out of the heart could only be symbolic. Landor is dubious about Poe's theory but keeps the young man around, hiring him as a junior investigator. It will be Poe's task to do the investigating that Landor cannot do himself, get close to the cadets who knew the victim, and report back to Landor. 

This leads to a surprising supernatural connection to the death that brings Landor in contact with an old friend. An almost unrecognizable Robert Duvall plays Jean-Pepe, a Professor with a taste for the supernatural and the macabre. He theorizes that the taking of the heart and an occult symbol found in a barn near the murder may indicate a ritual killing, an attempt by someone to communicate with the dead via a sacrifice and a human heart. 

Meanwhile, Poe begins to fall in love. Lucy Boynton stars as Lea, the daughter of Dr. Marquis, and Dr Marquis's imperious wife, Julia (Gillian Anderson). Lea has a disease that is slowly killing her but that doesn't stop Poe from falling deeply in love with her. This came as he investigated Dr. Marquis' son, Artemus (Harry Lawley) who appears to have connections to the supernatural. The Marquis Family, Poe and Detective Landor are all at the center of the mystery at the heart of Pale Blue Eye. 

Pale Blue Eye is not based on a real story. Rather, it's based on a legend that Edgar Allen Poe helped to spread around the time he began his famed writing career. It's a story that Writer-Director Scott Cooper has been eager to tell since he broke through with his debut feature, Crazy Heart. You can sense the care Cooper is taking to tell this story and he is a skilled storyteller. That said, Pale Blue Eye doesn't quite live up to Cooper's passionate presentation. 

The film is absorbing and the mystery is quite intriguing. That said, the final act of Pale Blue Eye goes just a step too far. A bizarre twist unfolds that makes you look back at the rest of the movie with confusion. Character decisions that seemed logical earlier in the story become weirdly questionable after the twist is revealed and since the twist isn't satisfying enough on its own  to justify all that it corrupts in the rest of the telling of the story. 

Christian Bale cuts a strong figure as Detective Landor. His chemistry with Harry Melling's Poe is the strongest aspect of Pale Blue Eye. The amused way Landor takes in the oddball Poe is quite entertaining and Melling's broad theatrical performance bounces wonderfully off of Bale's more naturalistic performance. Melling might be overly broad if not for the way Bale's Landor grounds him and makes him appear more human, drawing him out from his theatricality toward more genuine, honest moments. t's a good dynamic. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: X-Files I Want to Believe

X-Files I want to Believe (2009) 

Directed by Chris Carter 

Written by Frank Spotnitz 

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connelly, Xzibit

Release Date July 25th, 2009 

Published July 24th, 2009 

As a casual fan of The X-Files tv series I can't claim any unique insight into the inner workings of Mulder and Scully or understanding of thei ongoing plight. I can tell you that when you see them in the new suspense X-Files: I Want To Believe that long time fans will be geeking out over activities that might seem commonplace to the average moviegoer.

Do not fret non-X-Philes, you won't be completely left out of the fun, as you may have been by the dense, TV plot heavy, Fight The Future. X-Files: I Want To Believe is a stand alone mystery that welcomes lovers of suspense, X-phile or non.

When last we saw Fox Mulder he was drummed out of the FBI and possibly a wanted man. He's gone off the grid and only his partner Dana Scully knows how to find him. Thus why a pair of FBI agents (Amanda Peet and Xzibit) accost Scully as she deals with a very sick boy in her new life as a surgeon. She wonders if they are looking to arrest him, but they have something completely different in mind.

A young, female FBI agent has gone missing and the only clues to her disappearance are being provided by a priest (Billy Connelly) who claims psychic abiliity. After the priest lead them to a severed arm buried in the snow, thankfully not belonging to the missing agent, they begin to take seriously his psychic abilities. Of course when dealing with a psychic you need an agent who understands such things.

Enter Fox Mulder. All will be forgiven, he can rejoin the FBI if he is willing to help locate the missing agent. Among the drawbacks? The priest is a convicted pedophile who, psychic visions aside, remains a suspect in the case. Add to that Scully's unwillingness to return with him, mostly because of the creepy pedophile, and you have quite a dilemma for Mulder.

Well, if you guessed that Mulder followed Scully's lead out the door and back into seclusion you are sorely mistaken. Joining the fray he engages and quickly comes to believe the priest. When another young woman goes missing things grow even more urgent and even more disturbing.

Unlike the dense alien stoked malaise of the first X-Files feature, Fight The Future, X-Files: I Want To Believe was directed by show creator Chris Carter with an eye toward reintroducing the brand and inviting new fans. Thus we get a stand alone mystery that leaves out much of the sticky conspiracy that was the propulsive element of the show.

Having to generate energy for a stand alone mystery is not much of a challenge for Carter, some of the series best episodes were stand alone mysteries about lone psychos, alien abductions and psychic events. The central mystery of  I Want To Believe is fully contained in the films just over 100 minute runtime and aside from some of the more grizzly elements, could have made a solid two episode arc on the old TV show.

Carter's direction is seasoned and professional with just a hint of the artist behind the craftsman. A nod to, of all people, Godard, in one scene will be missed by most but is a striking image. And don't think that Carter has left behind his love of plot thickness. Watch the way he weaves Scully's new medical career into the central plot. On the surface it seems contrived but on further thought it goes deeper than you think.

The allure of The X-Files remains squarely in the chemistry of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Returning to these roles after five years apart, they slip comfortably back into their old married couple dynamic with Mulder as the bumbling husband and Scully the loving but correcting wife. As he blunders forth with the psychic she stands behind him clucking her tongue and finding flaw.

The mystery and the supernatural elements of the X-Filles makes it much more fun and slightly more complex than it sounds. Still, the Mulder-Scully connection should be familiar to anyone familiar with the conventions of your average will they or won't they dynamic from Ross and Rachel on Friends to Harry and Sally from Rob Reiner's classic. The difference being aliens, psychics, and a body count, but even the uninitiated will get the vibe.

That's the twist, iconic romance with with a sci fi bent. You don't need to be in the fan cult to have fun with that. The 'romance' is not central or essential to the plot of I Want To Believe but it's a lot of fun and Duchovny and Anderson have been having fun with it for years, teasing fans with a kiss here, a look there.

The humor of the will they/won't they was a welcome respite from the dense conspiracy of the series and just the kind of kick the show needed to become part of pop culture beyond the alien loving set. Now in I Want To Believe it has become the default setting, a place for the story to go when things are getting a little too grim for the non-fans.

Oh, don't be mistaken, fans will find a lot to love about this as well, for some the 'romance' is why they became fans.

X-Files: I Want To Believe is filled with suspense, viscera and a hint of romantic comedy. It's fun for fans and non-fans alike. The sci-fi suspense should be appealing to any audience and the easy breezy chemistry of Mulder and Scully only makes things more appealing. Yes, the plot has some convenient moments but what works about X-Files: I Want To Believe is far more entertaining than the flaws are irritating or nagging.

Movie Review The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland (2006) 

Directed by Kevin MacDonald 

Written by Jeremy Brock, Peter Morgan 

Starring Forrest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, Gillian Anderson 

Release Date September 27th, 2006 

Published September 26th, 2006 

Forest Whitaker has long been one of our most respected actors. And yet, the big prize, that signature role, has always eluded him. That gives a little extra juice to his role in Last King Of Scotland. Hollywood has wanted to find a way to honor Whitaker and now they have a good reason for it. As the evil Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Whitaker is a powerful presence who dominates the screen even when offscreen. The Last King of Scotland overall is a flawed, somewhat messy movie that without Whitaker's mesmerizing performance would have never made it to the screen.

In 1970 Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) graduated medical school and seemed destined to join his father's family practice in Glasgow Scotland. Seeing his life laid out before him, Nicholas decided to shake things up. Taking on a missionary role in Uganda Africa, Nicholas thought he would spend a year treating the locals, building his karma and then head home. He wound up staying for nine eventful years.

Nicholas's arrival in Uganda coincided with a coup that brought the country a new leader. His name was Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) and his man of the people schtick worked because of his huge personality and the tacit backing of the British government who had trained him for leadership for years. Nicholas and Amin met by chance when the dictator was injured in a minor car accident. The two bonded over Scotland where Nicholas was born and where Amin was trained as a younger man.

Amin, liking Nicholas's heritage and brash spirit invites him to come to the capital where he is to become the dictator's personal physician. At first he resists, but after being promised the opportunity to shape Uganda's health care industry and advise his friend on all matters, health as well as political and social issues, the offer of power is too much for Nicholas to turn down. His decision is a fateful deal with the devil as Amin's wild mood swings have Nicholas watching people killed and worrying for his own life.

The Last King of Scotland was the inventive idea of fiction writer Giles Foden who got the idea to chronicle the life and crimes of Idi Amin through a fictional character, Nicholas Garrigan. Nicholas is a composite of several different men who held favor with the real life dictator throughout his 9 year reign. It works as a shorthand way of trying to tell the story of Idi Amin. However, as a dramatic device in this movie it's distracting.

Too often the fictional character of Nicholas Garrigan pushes the real life Idi Amin off stage. So much time is spent establishing the stakes for this fictional composite character that we lose focus on the story hof Idi Amin that is the supposed driving force of this movie. The scenes with Garrigan are strong enough but because Forrest Whitaker's Idi Amin is so powerful that when he's not on screen we want to know where he is and what he's doing. 

Director Kevin MacDonald directed the exceptional documentary Touching The Void, one of the ten best films of 2003. That film combined documentary style interviews with dramatic recreations of the events that took place. Macdonald's documentary style approach is often well used in Last King of Scotland, however there are a few too many instances when McDonald's documentary look is at odds with his melodramatic storytelling.

Forest Whitaker nails the role of bloodthirsty paranoid dictator. Unfortunately, the film too often lurches away from his performance for more time with Nicolas Garrigan and we are left wondering what Idi Amin is doing. Granted, a movie that focused more directly on the evil dictator would likely be oppressive and dark given Amin's well chronicled crimes, however it would be more interesting than much of what made up the final cut of The Last King Of Scotland.

The problems with The Last King Of Scotland stem from the Nicolas Garrigan character and not from anything done by Forest Whitaker in the film. The Garrigan character is weak and far less interesting than Idi Amin. Moreover, Garrigan never develops much beyond being a plot device. He is a manufactured character in place so this story could be told. That might be okay if the character were more interesting but as written Garrigan is lightweight and forgettable where Amin is at once horrifying and fascinating.

Forest Whitaker nails every aspect of this role. His Idi Amin is monstrous yet charismatic. He is a horror film character made real. This is a remarkable, transformative performance and yet not surprising. People have been waiting for Forrest Whitaker to find this kind of role and make it his signature and he finally has. That his performance is far better than the film in which it exists is all that holds it back from being the best performance of any actor in the last year.

See The Last King of Scotland for Forest Whitaker