Christian Bale is such a terrific actor that everything he stars in is worth a watch.

And while not every movie is going to be The Prestige or The Dark Knight or The Fighter, you're always guaranteed a good performance from the Oscar-winning Brit.

That's certainly the case in Netflix's lush, immersive new period detective piece The Pale Blue Eye.

Based on a novel of the same name by Louis Bayard, the murder mystery is set at New York's West Point military academy in the 1830s.

Bale plays Augustus Landor, a mostly-retired investigator who's been called on to figure out the death of a West Point cadet.

Helping him along the way is a macabre sort of character, a fellow cadet with a keen eye for the mysterious and dark - one Edgar Allan Poe.

Dudley Dursley himself, Harry Melling, plays the role with aplomb. Props must also be given to the hair and make-up team who have somehow made the actor resemble the famed American author through wispy hair and forehead prominence.

The folks in charge of West Point employ Landor to, as speedily as possible, determine what happened after cadet Leroy Fry was discovered hanging from a tree by the lake in the middle of the wintry night.

The deceased was taken to the morgue, looked over by the coroner, and left for the night. But by morning the unfortunate chap was found without his heart.

Landor takes no time to establish that Fry's death was not a suicide, despite the hanging, pointing out errors in Dr Marquis' autopsy findings.

Toby Jones (another Harry Potter alum, one of several in this film) plays the doc, oscillating between creepy and pitiable at any given moment. Jones has an incredible ability to defy expectations in a role, and is never overshadowed by his co-stars, despite his small stature.

As the investigation progresses, the number of bodies rises, as does the number of missing hearts.

Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Spall, who spends the entire movie looking like he's ingesting a terrible smell) and Captain Hitchcock (Simon McBurney, looking nothing like himself) remind Landor that the longer the mystery goes unsolved, the poorer the establishment looks.

This doesn't seem to worry the world-weary loner too much.

In the course of the investigation we meet a bunch of interesting people around West Point, including the family of the good doctor.

Gillian Anderson (The Crown) plays Mrs Julia Marquis, wife of the coroner. The character is clearly mentally ill and Anderson plays her with a knowing fire behind the eyes. She's impossible to look away from.

Then there's Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), the sickly daughter who catches the eye of the young Poe.

Director Scott Cooper, who previously worked with Bale on the underrated Hostiles and Out of the Furnace and who also directed Crazy Heart and Black Mass among others, does a great job evoking the Gothic vibe of the times.

The whole film is moody, snowy, lacking joy. But there's perhaps not quite enough dread. And maybe the mystery, which has a layered reveal, isn't quite as satisfactory as we'd hope.

A good old-fashioned Gothic mystery has definitely been delivered, but it just doesn't have that big "aha" moment that the best detective stories do.

It's all dressed beautifully - literally, the period costumes are divine - but doesn't have all the depth of story it needs to become a classic.

The Pale Blue Eye is a slow-burn journey, so if you prefer a little more action in your whodunits, you may be disappointed.