Review of The Pledge (2001) by Alvin Y — 14 Jun 2011

It's like playing a game then after 2 hours, game over! I mean, it's like the character of the film, Jerry, played by Jack Nicholson, is playing a very deadly game because he made a promise, and of course that promise or the pledge must not be broken. As we know, Nicholson's character is gonna be retire soon, but on the last day of his retirement, there is one crime happened and he must check it to see what happened, and that's where the promise began, he promises to the family of that murdered kid to find the killer and kill him, but wait is this true, they found the killer, played by Benicio Del Toro, and claims to be the killer and then shoots himself, movie's over, NOT! Jerry is not convince yet to this, he thinks there's more possibilities into this murder, and what he did is he went on a small town, to what to get the killer, and uses some people as bait. There are more characters you wouldn't expect to show up, and many more twists that you wouldn't expect as well. As we also know, Sean Penn directs the film, yes Sean Penn, you have seen a lot of movies that he's the main actor, but here, he is the director, his style in filmmaking is not that unique or mysterious that sometimes makes you think, because you mostly know the formula in some films like this, you have cops, suspects, victims, and clues, so what, really not a conceptual and a unique crime thriller. The ending as well is pretty mess, we didn't know who is the real killer and what happen then to Jerry? Penn misses something into this that somehow could have been a lot better. But I like the character study, the more we get to know more of Nicholson's character, the more we get thrilled by what's happening, but also about how his quest would ruined almost his life, also reminding me his character in The Shining, only he is an old man here and not a bad one.

I think that's all, as I said, Nicholson is always as brilliant in movie he's on, and to Penn, he almost made it to the top, but I prefer his other film "Into the Wild" to be his great. It's a good thriller but still it has a lot of major questions left unanswered.