Parents' Guide to The Pale Blue Eye

This period mystery has a few flaws in its logic, but its stellar cast, some good twists, and a crisp, wintry atmosphere add up to a sturdy, bleak film that should pair well with a hot mug of cocoa. Based on a novel by Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye isn't exactly the kind of mystery that viewers will be able to solve; it's not clue-oriented like Death on the Nile or Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. And it has one major element that doesn't exactly make sense (which can't be explained without giving too much away). But, nevertheless, thanks to unfussy direction by filmmaker Scott Cooper, it's satisfying to watch all of the pieces click together, especially in locations like a creepy icehouse and a tavern lit by flickering candles stuck to tables by mounds of wax.

The casting of Melling (Harry Potter's Dudley Dursley) as Poe is inspired, and he's quite a character, a cunning and loquacious Southern gentleman who's the perfect complement to Bale's serious, dispirited detective. Gillian Anderson gets some laughs as the slightly improper wife of the school's doctor (Toby Jones), and Robert Duvall has a couple of potent scenes as a scholar of the occult, surrounded by shelves full of ancient tomes. Timothy Spall and Simon McBurney play stern officers at the academy, Charlotte Gainsbourg is Landor's part-time lover, and Lucy Boynton is the sister of one cadet who catches Poe's eye. The cast strikes sparks off of one another, ensuring that, in The Pale Blue Eye, there's always something interesting to see.