And drags and drags and drags. I know there are some here who abide by the church of Scott Cooper, but, as far as I’m concerned, he’s had a wonky track record as a director.
“Crazy Heart,” “Out of the Furnace,” “Hostiles,” “Antlers” and “Black Mass” all disappointed me. There’s a classicism to Cooper’s style that either you go along with or you don’t. I find many of his films to just be flat out boring, both visually and narratively.
Reviews for Cooper’s “The Pale Blue Eye” are out: 53 on Metacritic and 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. The problem, I think, with this film is that it revolves around a mystery that you just don’t much care about.
Clocking in at an interminable 130-minutes, and much like every Cooper, this is well-made and the performances are solid (Harry Melling and Christian Bale especially) but, again, the mystery isn't compelling and the whole thing is drawn out to interminable length.
“The Pale Blue Eye” stars Bale as a veteran detective who investigates a set of murders, helped by a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become a world famous author, Edgar Allan Poe.