Hollywood's disdain for the common man is best delivered not by the excesses of a Zsa Zsa Gabor or a Barbra Streisand, but rather, by films that attempt to depict the elusive common man. To Hollywood, you can tell he's common because he is both pitiful and noble, he always looks borderline retarded, and he digs flannel. Sean Penn's "The Pledge" proves the rule. Penn's idea of being true to the Miller High Life drinkers is flaunting his wife, Robin Wright Penn, as a barmaid with a gnarled front tooth. Naturally, her redemption, in the form of ex-cop Jack Nicholson, is not in his coming to love both her and her daughter. Because prior to that point, Penn finds it necessary to have her tooth fixed. I mean, let's not take this common man thing too far. We can't expect Jack to fuck a babe with a gnarled tooth.
Other problems abound. Penn uses top actors for single scenes, so each feels compelled to ACCCCCCCCCCCTTTTTTTTTTT! like there's no tomorrow. Benicio Del Toro, Vanessa Redgrave, Mickey Rourke, Helen Mirren, they all emote for a brief, generally pointless flash. Others like harry Dean Stanton and Sam Shepard are given roles best left to the grapes or leaves in a Fruit of the Loom commercial. But Sean called, so, hey. Like Keith Gordon, Penn is so enamored of his visual style that a cop can't walk into a room without cross-cuts to the ticking clock and the face of a fat, stupid common clerk telling us something (but what?) Nicholson can't drink at a Nevada airport bar without flash cuts to whirring slot machines. Not only does all this work lead to continuity problems (Nicholson's scotch miraculously becomes a beer seconds later
water into wine?), it is annoying.
The plot is Penn, all the way. Nicholson is haunted by the murder of a little girl, so much so it tests his sanity. And best, we are introduced to Nicholson as insane, so the film drained of any dramatic impact at the get go. Grade: F.
