Movie Review: “The Pale Blue Eye”
You remember Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter films, don’t you? Of course you do! Who could forget chubby, self-centered, obnoxious Dudley, Harry’s spoiled-rotten cousin who always got the best of everything from his parents—Harry’s aunt and uncle—and was never satisfied with any of it.
As they say, that was then, and this is now. And now, you won’t recognize the talented up-and-coming young adult actor the boy who played Dudley has become. As it turns out, in real life he’s also a Harry: his name is Harry Melling. He’s been popping up in a lot of movies lately, demonstrating that he’s a serious actor, one who takes chances and has an assured dramatic touch.
The movie I’m thinking of in particular is “The Pale Blue Eye,” where Melling has the great good fortune to have been cast as Edgar Allan Poe, during the writer/poet’s cadet days at West Point. The film’s title is taken from one of Poe’s most famous short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” from 1843:
I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
One of the most interesting aspects of this movie is that—difficult as it may be to imagine—young Poe did spend time as a cadet at West Point. He was expelled the following year, however, after accumulating a number of offenses, and so the world of literature gained while the military life lost out.
Appropriately where Poe as a dramatic character is concerned, grisly, even Satanic murders (including hangings) of cadets are taking place at the military academy. And all the deductive powers of the man who in real life invented the detective who works by “ratiocination” are called into play to solve the gruesome puzzle. Also central to the investigation—though not in the way that any of us think—is a real detective of the time named Augustus Landor, who is played by Christian Bale.
The two main characters—Poe and Landor—are vastly different from each other in their methods, adding to our interest in watching them work. Both actors underplay their roles with skill and an exquisite sense of timing. So come for the murder mystery in a unique setting featuring some very dark motives. But stay to see what Dudley Dursley has turned into in real life: a slim (no longer chubby) actor with talent and daring. From now on, we’ll all remember him as Harry Melling. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of him on the big screen.
