The pale blue eye

it is Grisly, Grim, and Surprisingly Moving

Based on Louis Bayard’s 2003 novel, The Pale Blue Eye follows retired New York investigator Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), who is called out of retirement to look into the gruesome death of a student at the United States Military Academy. Landor lives alone in the woods. Nobody knows why Leroy Fry (Matt Helm), who was found hanging and with his heart removed, committed suicide or was murdered. The grizzled, grimacing Landor accepts the case despite having an underlying antagonistic connection with the school and displaying complete scorn for everyone in his immediate vicinity. Then he recruits an uncomfortable young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) to help him out, telling him right once that the murderer they're looking for must be a poet. “The heart is a symbol, or it is nothing,” Poe explains. “To remove a man’s heart is to traffic in symbol. And who better equipped for such labor than a poet?” Deep, man.

Poe captivates Landor, who begins to admire this young eccentric man. It's jarring to watch warmth toward someone else creep into Bale's gaze because he has mastered playing aloof characters for such a long time. Landor came to these woods hoping to find happiness with his family but instead found himself alone and resentful. Landor lost his wife to illness, and we are told that his daughter recently ran away from home. We begin to comprehend why Landor has been more accommodating toward this outcast poet-cadet when Poe enters his home and admires books that are obviously his daughter's because the elder man is reminded of his lost daughter by the young guy. Poe may also need some fatherly grounding because he claims to occasionally communicate with his deceased mother.

This father-son relationship drives the entire scene and foreshadows numerous pivotal moments in the movie's conclusion. That puts a lot of pressure on Melling, and you never quite know where his fantastic Poe is going. He gives this outsider a fey, haunted assurance with his cavernous eyes dominating a face that is otherwise all cheekbone and chin. As befits a true Romantic, he fluctuates between waves of grief and grandiosity. You can sense the tragedy of his ending up at West Point. You get the impression from Poe's mannerisms and voice that he is a man who will either leave his mark on the world or perish in a ditch.[1]

[1] PALE BLUE EYE https://www.vulture.com/article/review-christian-bale-in-netflix-mystery-the-pale-blue-eye.html