| THE PLEDGE |
 2001
- USA
Director: Sean
Penn - Reviewed by Tim
Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson), is about to retire from the Reno police department when he leaves his own party to help investigate the murder of an 8-year-old girl. Although he knows he is not going to be able to stay on the case, he goes out on the call. What they find is a gruesome sight, to say the least, and in a twist of the absurd, Jerry is the one to tell the parents of the little girl’s demise. This is when he is asked to swear on his mortal soul, or something very close, that he would find the person who did this. Hence the “the pledge”. They think that they caught the man who committed the murder (Benicio Del Toro), but Jack has further suspicions about who really did it. As Jack tries to convince the department that they have the wrong guy, he is basically told: “Hey, dude, you’re retired now, go away.” (A perfectly sad, but probably realistic, commentary on how we treat our retired workers. “We’re younger and stronger, therefore we know how to do your job better than you.” – Sheesh!) As you may have already figured out, Jack becomes obsessed with finding the killer, so his retired life is now his own crusade to fulfill his pledge to the little girl’s mother. Robin Wright (Lori), who has a major supporting role, dons a broken tooth and some pretty impressive bruises all in the name of character development. She plays the mother of a little girl who Jerry considers a “perfect target” for the killer. You are never really sure if their relationship is true, or if it is for the benefit of Jerry’s quest to find the killer. The supporting cast is quite impressive, with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Mickey Rourke, Helen Mirren, Benicio Del Toro and Micheal O’Keefe to name a few, most of which can carry a movie all by themselves. They are mostly pretty secondary characters, with but one or two scenes each, but a fine job is done by all. Sean Penn does a fine job at making this story an atypical suspense thriller and pulls off something that I never thought would happen again: Jack Nicholson playing a character that wasn’t a carbon copy of himself which, in my opinion, is been what he’s been doing for some time now. The cinematography is also quite good, with sweeping views of the Sierra Nevada region. There are some pacing issues that I had difficulties with, but overall, I think it’s a keeper. There may be some who get somewhat confused or even bored with the movie (as is said, there were some pacing issues), but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with a good movie. |
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