It would seem that I have at least one thing in common with the director of this film: we're both fans of Christian Bale. Scott Cooper has only directed 6 films over his 13 year directorial career, and half of them have starred the Dark Knight. I've seen both of their previous collaborations (Out of the Furnace (2013) and Hostiles (2017)) and enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to seeing their third outing together. Unfortunately, I came away disappointed.
I had several problems with the film, but the most significant was with the story. I think this is a strong premise on paper, but one that doesn't quite translate onto the screen. This may be partially an execution issue, but there's definitely some inherent difficulty with the story's structure. The issue is it relies too much on its big twist to salvage what is otherwise an uncompelling detective story. The final 20 minutes, though surprising and reasonably successful in re-contextualizing everything prior, are not enough to make up for the 90 minutes of bland investigation that proceeded it (e.g. the visits to Robert Duvall's character were the epitome of cliché detective work, i.e. unimaginative, overly convenient, almost superfluous). It also doesn't help that Christian Bale's character is equally reliant on the twist as a source of depth, so prior to the reveal, his character felt quite flat.
Now, even with these high level issues, the film isn't quite bad. The biggest saving grace is Harry Melling's excellent performance as Edgar Allen Poe. He steals pretty much every scene he shows up in. I'd also credit the lower level writing, as Poe's dialogue is suitably poetic and compelling. I only wish the rest of the film delivered the same.
Review by SkinnyFilmBuffVIP 8BlockedParent2023-01-21T20:05:49Z
It would seem that I have at least one thing in common with the director of this film: we're both fans of Christian Bale. Scott Cooper has only directed 6 films over his 13 year directorial career, and half of them have starred the Dark Knight. I've seen both of their previous collaborations (Out of the Furnace (2013) and Hostiles (2017)) and enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to seeing their third outing together. Unfortunately, I came away disappointed.
I had several problems with the film, but the most significant was with the story. I think this is a strong premise on paper, but one that doesn't quite translate onto the screen. This may be partially an execution issue, but there's definitely some inherent difficulty with the story's structure. The issue is it relies too much on its big twist to salvage what is otherwise an uncompelling detective story. The final 20 minutes, though surprising and reasonably successful in re-contextualizing everything prior, are not enough to make up for the 90 minutes of bland investigation that proceeded it (e.g. the visits to Robert Duvall's character were the epitome of cliché detective work, i.e. unimaginative, overly convenient, almost superfluous). It also doesn't help that Christian Bale's character is equally reliant on the twist as a source of depth, so prior to the reveal, his character felt quite flat.
Now, even with these high level issues, the film isn't quite bad. The biggest saving grace is Harry Melling's excellent performance as Edgar Allen Poe. He steals pretty much every scene he shows up in. I'd also credit the lower level writing, as Poe's dialogue is suitably poetic and compelling. I only wish the rest of the film delivered the same.