A Pale Blue Eye

"Not only have they stolen our hills," says Ailz, "but they've also stolen Eastbourne." It's a misty morning- and the mist is thicker than usual. Is it a sea mist or are they also enjoying it inland?

We got rid of our TV but kept the Netflix subscription (I don't think cancelling it was an option.) I haven't been using it but yesterday- reinforcing my resolution to stay up later- I fired it up on my computer (which has a pretty big screen.) There was very little I wanted to watch but settled on A Pale Blue Eye- a costume farrago that enmeshes a young Edgar Allan Poe in a series of ghastly murders at West Point. The setting is striking (the Hudson River Valley in winter), the writing is clumsy, Christian Bale plays it straight, Harry Melling is expressive- not to say expressionist- as Poe, the rest of the cast chews what scenery is available to them and the occult element is undercooked gobbledygook. A curious thing about it is that though it's an American film on an American subject almost every character is played by a Brit or an Anglo-Brit. Robert Duvall- just about the only fully paid up American in the cast- is given a terrific build-up as the "most extraordinary person" Christian Bale knows and then has one scene and a few lines of flat exposition. I didn't recognise him.

Harry Melling

By way of a footnote to my last post.

I've seen two of the movies that Harry Melling has made since he graduated from the Potterverse- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs- which is great- and A Pale Blue Eye- which isn't- and in both he exuded a quality for which the shorthand term might be "soulfulness". He is a very special talent.

I see that King Lear crops up twice in his CV. In one production he played the Fool and in the other he played Edgar. I imagine he was brilliant in both.