Cristiano Bale and the director Scott Cooper unite for the third time in ‘The Academy Crimes’ (The pale blue eye)a 19th-century detective story that is as dark and brooding as its previous films, the blue-collar crime drama “The Law of the Fittest” (out of the oven) and western crude hostile.
“The Crimes of the Academy” is an adaptation of the historical fiction novel by Louis Bayard (what can you buy here)starring Bale as a detective investigating the death of a cadet and his apprentice/assistant is none other than a young man Edgard Allan Poeinterpreted by Harry Mellingwhich of course makes us wonder if that’s a good thing, or if we’re just going to mention the crow in this case.
What is The Academy Crimes about?
It’s a gray winter in the northeast. The grayest, perhaps. There is a hanged man. Another man, Augustus Landor (Bale), seems miserable and lonely. Widower. Your daughter, she’s gone. His task is death: he investigates. Hunting for clues. Catch the culprits. He has a good reputation for it.
They’re calling him at West Point Military Academy. That hanged man? A student, a future soldier. It wasn’t suicide. No, his feet have touched the ground. His nails were broken from scratching the rope so badly. A bruise on the back of the head. And there is the question of his heart. He was cut, with some precision. It’s not normal. Will the heart tell the story? We’ll see, after all we are in 1830.
Landor’s superiors are a pair of embittered Captain Hitchcocks (Simon McBurney) and Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Shoulder). These men exist to dip their faces into old jars, a likely side effect of being a lifelong military man. They know Landor is good at his job; they also know that he tends to drink. “Do not drink”is the warning, and seconds later he pops into the local osteria for a sip. There he meets a strange gentleman who introduces himself as “People. EA Po. Edgar A. Poe”, which is fun for us, though not necessarily for Landor. I don’t think anything is fun for Landor, ever.
Let’s talk about this young man. Poe is a young West Point cadet who, at first blush, seems doomed to failure sooner rather than later. He admits he’s a poet whose dead mother dictates lines to him in her dreams of him, which is, you know, funny. Not exactly GI material, and therefore perfect for Landor’s undercover man. He offers Poe a job that won’t earn him any money or recognition, and won’t endear him to anyone. He agrees. We have a feeling that nobody likes this strange cadet anyway.
They begin to browse. Poe mingles with his fellow cadets who look alike in their silly double-breasted suits with brass buttons, chiseled cheekbones, and wide sideburns. Landor talks to campus doctor Dr. Daniel Marquis (Toby Jones) and his family: his son Artemus (Harry Lawtey), a cadet; his daughter Lia (Lucia Boyton), a sick girl; and his wife Julia (Gillian Anderson), something elegant.
Poe asks Lea out for a quiet winter walk through the cemetery, and she agrees, because Poe understands that she is too. “living in realms of melancholy”. Meanwhile, a nearby cow and sheep are found dead with a broken heart, followed by a second cadet, who lacks more than just heart… Landor senses something satanic in the air, which leads him to a wacky old man. who looks like who stinks like a ten-year-old dead rat caught in a trap, and is played by Robert Duval.
Cristiano Bale it does what it does best: it maintains a solid foundation for the film and deftly adds some spice to a screenplay that lacks depth. Pair that with an oddball like Melling, a career character actor whose best work is found in the films of the Coen brothers. (The Tragedy of MacBeth and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)and together they overcome some of the film’s flaws.
Should I watch Crimes of the Academy?
You can’t deny the atmosphere of ‘The Academy Crimes’, the fog rises from the screen and consumes your living room. Cooper’s eye for period detail and ability to set a downbeat tone make the film a solidly immersive experience, very much in line with our expectations for his work. It’s a competent film, very easy to watch, strong in every technical ability, from a soulful score by Howard Shore to its beautiful mournful lighting courtesy of the cinematographer. Masanobu Takayanagi.
“The Academy Crimes” is a historical mystery the Netflix solid rock. Its strengths are more than its weaknesses. It’s good enough for its depressive niche, but don’t expect me to remember it.
