Penn makes good on The Pledge
Added 3/17/2009
On the day of his retirement, Reno homicide cop Jack Nicholson investigates the brutal small-town murder of an eight-year-old girl and promises the distraught mother that he will find the killer. Seen fleeing the scene, retarded Indian Benicio Del Toro is apprehended the next day and confesses before killing himself in custody. It doesn't sit right with Nicholson, who delves into similar crimes unsolved in Nevada. Finding a link with two other cases, Nicholson baits a trap for a killer who might still be out there waiting to prey on young victims. Friedrich Durrenmatt's story It Happened in Broad Daylight has been filmed before as The Cold Light of Day, a 1995 Dutch film starring Richard E. Grant and set anonymously in eastern Europe. Sean Penn places his version precisely in the harsh landscape of the American West, the small town's clapboard buildings puny and inadequate in the shadow of the snow-peaked Sierras. Durrenmatt's schematic crime drama thus becomes more metaphysical character study than psycho-thriller, and in Nicholson's admirably restrained performance the obsessive detective is a noble melancholy loner, fascinating and deeply flawed. Good intentions, it seems, are sometimes not enough and Nicholson's sad character loses the plot. Penn calls his version The Pledge, but it could as well have been called The Secret. Nicholson unwisely keeps his counsel and it has devastating consequences for him as well as the mother, daughter and suspect. The only ones he tells the truth are his former colleagues on the force, and they don't believe him. The casting throughout is canny: Penn not only makes shrewdly judged use of the saturnine Del Toro's feral features but also puts Tom Noonan in a pivotal role. The softly spoken, apparently benign Noonan, of course, carries the imprint of his creepy depiction of Tooth Fairy serial-killer Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter, Michael Mann's masterful version of Red Dragon. In tone and bleak visual grandeur, Penn's picture resembles Paul Schrader's unforgiving film Affliction, and - as Nicholson rails in the wind against the random injustice of it all - it leaves a similarly haunting impression.
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Nicholson's Last Great Dramatic Role
Added 9/16/2008
While The Pledge will never be included in anyone's list of favorite Jack Nicholson movies. It is none the less a finely crafted film, with great performances by Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Dale Dickey and of course Jack Nicholson. Kudos to Sean Penn for delivering this psychological thriller with such clearity and suspense. There's an erie undercurrent of mystery and intrigue throughout the movie that leaves one feeling unsettled right to the very end.
Having recently made several light comedies, (As Good As It Gets, About Schmidt and Somethings Gotta Give) all very good movies, Nicholson has had few dramatic roles of late that can compare with the great perfomances he gave us from Five Easy Pieces (1970) to A Few Good Men (1992). The Pledge (2001) is, in my opinion the last truly great dramatic performance he has done. While I'm certainly not writing him off, I sincerely hope Jack can find several more roles that challange his formitable skills at delivering rivoting and compelling dramatic performances. Until then The Pledge remains a latter day masterpiece by the single greatest actor of his generation.
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NICHOLSON DOES NOT DISAPPOINT!
Added 3/23/2008
Jack Nicholson is, to me, one of the best actors of this generation, and his acting in this movie was typical Nicholson. Powerful!
Although the movie was electric and spell binding, it left far too big a question at the end. This may work for some movies. For this one, it did not.
I did not like the ending.
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Great movie, disappointing ending
Added 3/5/2008
I just saw this movie for the first time today, never having heard of it before, but, as anything with Jack Nicholson is usually well worth watching, I gave it a shot. From the beginning, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen-it was a riveting, emotional-building roller coaster in that typically low-key Nicholson way, & I couldn't wait for the final "confrontation" with the killer. To say I was overly distraught at the ending would be an understatement. After proving that he was correct in his assumptions in the case, contrary to the intense reluctance & near-ridicule of his former police mates, Nicholson has the audience on the edge of our seats rooting for the proof of his redemption, as well as the gratitude of the mother he made the initial promise to, and the mother who's little girl he was in the process of saving, when lo & behold, the whole thing just sort of falls apart with an all-too-convenient & seemingly nonsensical fatal vehicular accident, causing everything to seem like a figment of Nicholson's mind, subsequently ruining his life & turning him into a babbling alcoholic. I, for one, would have loved (& expected to get) a closure-type ending-this movie screamed for one, but I guess that no one was listening.
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This was one of the worst movies I have ever had the misfortune of enduring.
Added 2/5/2008
The first half of the movie looks promising but I promise you you will regret watching the rest.
0 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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