The Boy and the Heron (2023)

World War II is underway and Mahito lives in Tokyo with his parents.  One night, the hospital, where his mother works, is left in flames after bombing.  His mother dies in the fire.  Soon after, his father Soichi (Christian Bale) relocates the family out of Tokyo to his wife's family's estate.  He has since remarried Natsuko (Gemma Chan), who happens to be his dead wife's younger sister.  No sooner have they arrived on the estate than a gray heron starts paying inordinate attention to Mahito.  He soon finds that it is a magical talking heron (Robert Pattison), which wavers between friend and foe.  The property has an old tower where his granduncle (Mark Hamill) went missing years ago.  There is also of story of his mother having vanished for a year in the tower only to return with no memory of the incident.  Of course, Mahito must investigate.

Like all Ghibli movies, the art is outstanding.  However, the story is lacking.  Mahito believes his mother might still be alive, clearly not yet reconciled with her death.  He does not get along with other kids at the local school and inflicts an injury to himself so that he won't have to go back.  Now with more free time, he followed the heron into the mysterious tower where he enters a fantastical world of giant man-eating parakeets led by the Parakeet King (Dave Bautista), villainous pelicans (Willem Dafoe), a strangely familiar fisherwoman (Florence Pugh), and Lady Himi the fire woman.  There are other bizarre denizens of this magical world that Mahito must navigate to save his stepmother and return home.  It is often confusing.

Obviously, it is a must-see for any fan of Studio Ghibli, but it is one of the weaker offerings.

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) returns to his cottage to discover Captain Hitchcock (Simon McBurney) awaiting him.  Hitchcock has come from West Point and would like Landor's assistance in solving the bizarre death of Cadet Fry.  That Fry hanged himself is not a mystery; that his heart was removed after his body had been recovered was.  Landor accepts the commission.  He has hardly begun his investigation at West Point when Cadet Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) approached him to say that the person responsible was a poet.  Soon, Landor engages Poe as a secret assistant.  Then heartless animals are discovered.  Is there some Satanic Cult active near the academy?  Landor consults with Jean Pepe (Robert Duvall), an expert on the occult.  When Cadet Ballinger is found hanged and heartless, suspicion turns toward Poe.  Poe had had difficulties with Fry; worse, he had threatened to kill Ballinger on the very night he died.  Both Ballinger and Poe had been courting Lea Marquis (Lucy Boynton), daughter of Doctor Maquis (Toby Jones) and sister to a classmate, Cadet Artemus Marquis (Harry Lawtey).

Poe is well explored.  He affects a Southern gentility from being raised in Virginia.  Though born in Boston, he had grown up in Richmond, VA, from the age of 2.  Melling manages to make Poe both an ostracized oddball and yet likeable and charming.  He is shown to be bookish, fluent in French, fascinated by death, silver-tongued, and possessing a facility for deduction. Though Poe was only 21 in 1830 and Melling is 33, Poe looked old for his age.  He had once claimed to be 22 when he was only 18 and was not called on the deception.  Of note, Poe began attending West Point in July of 1830 and was expelled in March of 1831.  His fellow cadets gifted him with $170 ($5,799.48 in 2023 dollars) to help him publish Poems.

Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer (Timothy Spall) was 45 years old in 1830.  Spall is 65.  Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock was only 32, but is portrayed by a 65 year-old McBurney.  Though it is great that these historical figures weren't replaced with fictional stand-ins, casting could have been better.  Still, both did a fine job.  It is funny that the principal cast is almost entirely British.

The mystery proves to be more complex than one expects.  Reminiscent of The Sixth Sense (1999), one must reconsider the movie when Poe reveals the final twist.  Of course, upon reconsidering, there are many unanswered questions and logical stretches.  Overall, an entertaining film and definitely recommended.