Review of The Pledge (2001) by Eric G — 30 Jan 2011

Intriguing and entertaining until the last twenty or so minutes, where there is what I feel like a major shift in tone and character as Jack Nicholson goes from being a slightly paranoid but loving, caring father (more or less) and a protector of his friends daughter, to an alcoholic crazy man, more concerned with catching a criminal than the safety of the girl.

This is where the problem lies with this movie, as the whole time his character is set up as a man who lives by strong morals and is only concerned with protecting the girl. Then, towards the end, one of the characters utters "now he's just a loon, and a drunk" or something along those lines.

The next scene, he's shown drunk, wandering around aimlessly at his tackle shop. The only problem with this is that we are never introduced to any kind of alcoholism problem with his character at any point during the movie, its almost as if that line was put there just so the could tack on a grim, depressing ending.

Way out of left field. The first two acts are very strong, however, and Benicio Del Toro does a great, almost unrecognizable cameo.