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The Pale Blue Eye trips over its own ambitions at certain points

As is now typical, The Pale Blue Eye arrived on Netflix last Friday after a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it theatrical run. Though that business model is destroying the moviegoing experience and will likely put whole cinema chains out of business in the next few years, I didn’t mind it in this case. The latest collaboration between actor Christian Bale and filmmaker Scott Cooper is slow, spooky, and strange as hell. This is a movie to be watched at home, under a blanket, among familiar things.

Harry Melling’s depiction of Poe central to Netflix’s ‘The Pale Blue Eye’

Scott Cooper's 'The Pale Blue Eye' has Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) making an unconventional partner to Christian Bale's 1830s sleuth.

Christian Bale investigates a series of gruesome murders in 1830 Hudson Valley, N.Y., in Scott Cooper's "The Pale Blue Eye," an adaptation of Louis Bayard's 2003 novel of the same name. It's a film based on some really good material, that takes place in an intriguing setting, and that sports a terrific cast who click right into place. Yet despite the many things it has going for it, "The Pale Blue Eye" can never quite get out of second gear.