"Why should you? You're an American."
This well-presented period mystery-thriller finds Christian Bale playing a gruff investigator brought in to look into the murder of a cadet at a remote military academy, who gets teamed with a young Edgar Allan Poe in a Holmes-and-Watson style tale. The winterbound candlelit mise-en-scene gives an atmospherically chilly feel, the dialogue is wordy and at times dense but builds the story well if in a somewhat over-deliberate manner that insists on taking its time to explain every step very carefully. Christian Bale imbues the detective Landor with a captivating world-weary stillness, contrasting with Harry Melling's somewhat theatrical and eccentric take on Poe. The film is rather languorous and occasionally awkward, veering between sincere procedural and sudden melodramatic histrionics, but the overarching mystery is played out cleverly with Christian Bale providing and extremely touching final and clever reveal.
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