Review of The Promise (2017) by Howard W — 25 Apr 2017

The Promise, in fact, did have a lot of promise. A movie based on the gruesome Armenian Genocide, that started on April 24, 1915, when the Islamic Ottoman Empire started rounding up and killing hundreds of Armenian intellectuals.

This genocide ended up with the massacre of 1.5 million Armenian people (along with 300,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Greeks). Filled with an outstanding cast, this movie promises a lot of great scenes filled with A-list actors like Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac.

Sadly, the odd, lackluster love triangle in The Promise between Michael, Ana, and Chris fails to ignite any feelings in viewers and mix in with the plot, only detracting from the seriousness of the horrifying tragedies of the Armenian Genocide.

The best parts of this movie being the scenes alluding to the Armenian Genocide only further emphasizes the fact that this romantic relationship between the three is not necessary whatsoever. The events during this dark period of time whether they are the protests by the Turkish mobs or Emre being executed for helping Armenians are put in the background as a flimsy romance between three characters is put up front, one that repeatedly fails to ignite.

Ana's "explosive" love relationship with Michael never seems to explode the way the movie wants it to. Viewers are left with two characters that they feel no real connection to or care about really.

Oscar Isaac also does not seem to quite fit the role and personality of the Armenian medical student, underlined by a horrible English accent throughout the movie and concluded by an atrocious Armenian accent towards the end of the movie.

Other than that, I think Christian Bale gives an outstanding performance portraying an American journalist dedicated to exposing the truth about what the Ottoman Turks were doing to the Armenians. The connection to Chris in the movie makes it even harder to feel for the romantic relationship between Ana and Michael, making the affair feel more like betrayal more than a spark of love between Ana and Michael, two people that both share an Armenian heritage.

Along with this, there is no significant build-up whatsoever between the two Armenians in the first place nor was there any reason to believe Ana even truly loved Chris either. Towards the end, there is the final scene where Michael and Ana are about to depart on a boat, where they end up sharing an intimate moment and start kissing, only for poor Chris (who is helping the rest of the Armenian fugitives) to look up and see them doing so.

To reiterate my point earlier, through every other aspect other than the lackluster love triangle, this movie does a phenomenal job in portraying the horrors during the time of the Armenian Genocide. The Promise deserves a solid 75% rating.

Despite the need of clearer focus on the events during this genocide, this movie does a good job spreading awareness of the Armenian Genocide even as many countries, especially Turkey, continue to deny it ever happening til this day.