The Pledge

Starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Aaron Eckhart, and Sam Shepherd. Written by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski from the novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Original Music by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer. Cinematography by Chris Menges. Directed by Sean Penn.

I’m sure that every review of this film will focus on Jack Nicholson’s performance, and well they should. Nicholson, the consummate actor’s actor, is terrific in a role that seems to be closer to the actor than I’m sure he’d like to admit. Nicholson’s Jerry Black is a retiring police detective who’s drawn into one last cast, even though his colleagues and superiors don’t want him on the job. Subtle clues let us know that Jerry once was a fantastic cop who spent time in Vietnam (very nice use of old Nicholson photos from what looks like The Last Detail) and has had a storied career. We come to know Jerry, not from what is said about his past, but from what we perceive in his present. Penn as a director, is incredibly subtle about that, we actually NEVER get to see Jerry be a fantastic cop, we only hear about it.

Jerry, while at his retirement party, is drawn to the crime scene, where an beautiful eight-year old has been brutally molested and murdered, along with his former partner played by Aaron Eckhart. The visuals here are gruesome and fantastic, as the director and the Cinematographer really create a sense of dread and fear. The promise of the title, is given to the grieving mother (a nice cameo by Patricia Clarkson), that Jerry will find the maniac responsible. Complicating matters though, is that his former mates have already found who they think is the killer and closed the case. Jerry decides to continue the investigation.

Time passes slowly, Jerry starts to build a life after his retirement, however that life is all based on finding the killer. He figures out that the killer has previous victims, and that he probably will kill again. In moves that appear calculating, but are really not, Jerry creates a trap for the killer, but it’s the trap that is ultimately Jerry’s downfall.

There is no such thing as a perfect film, and while The Pledge is a fantastic piece of work, it’s not perfect. The pacing is incredibly slow, and at times monotonous. At just over two hours, it could have easily been trimmed by five to ten minutes to create a tighter work. That does appear to be the pieces’ only drawback however, as the story is riveting and paranoid. Jerry suspects just about everyone, and grows more impatient with every scene. The end is a shocker that will leave the audience speechless, and no, I never saw it coming. Finally a twist ending that really was a twist.

As the opening credits scrawled I noticed some of my all-time favorite actors in this film, Helen Mirren, Harry Dean Stanton, Mickey Rourke, Costas Mandylor and Sam Shepherd. Unfortunately they all have extended cameos, as Nicholson and Robin Wright-Penn are the only two actors that have a great deal of face time. That’s OK I suppose, since this is a character piece, and not really a thriller. What’s interesting though, is that a majority of the characters could have come straight out of Fargo, being they are uneducated, backwoods hicks with fantastic tics and curious traits. Penn also appears to want to make Jerry the most intelligent character in the movie, which makes his ultimate fate all the more sad and ironic.

Chris Menges, who doesn’t exactly have a stellar resume (27 films as a cinematographer, the foremost being The Killing Fields, and four films as a director), really outdoes himself in this piece, with panoramic Nevada scenery and wonderful tracking shots. The music by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer wonderfully complements as well.

You are really missing out if you pass this up to go see something else.

My rating **** out of 5.