[A] beautifully made bummer.
The Pledge (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:90
Rotten:27
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Though its subject matter is grim and may make viewers queasy, The Pledge features an excellent, subtle performance by Jack Nicholson.
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $18,894,185
Synopsis: Director Sean Penn's (THE INDIAN RUNNER, THE CROSSING GUARD) third film features Jack Nicholson as Jerry Black, a retired detective whose final case ultimately causes his slow descent into madness.... Director Sean Penn's (THE INDIAN RUNNER, THE CROSSING GUARD) third film features Jack Nicholson as Jerry Black, a retired detective whose final case ultimately causes his slow descent into madness. In the midst of his retirement party, Black decides to join Detective Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) on one last case. The molested body of an eight-year-old girl is found in the Nevada mountains. When the chief suspect turns out to be a mentally challenged Native American (Benicio Del Toro), Black is not convinced of his guilt despite his confession. Unable to forget the promise he made to the dead girl's mother that he would find her daughter's killer, Black becomes determined to catch a monster that no one else believes is out there. His resolve increases when he realizes that two similar unsolved murders occurred in the same area in recent years, and the case hits closer to home when Black befriends Lori (Robin Wright Penn), a waitress with a threatening ex-husband, and her eight-year old daughter, Chrissy (Pauline Roberts). Nicholson is compelling in this study of a man whose obsession slowly eats away at his sanity as he attempts to keep his promise by any means necessary. [More]
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Dale Dickey, Aaron Eckhart, Costas Mandylor, Helen Mirren, Tom Noonan, Michael O'Keefe, Pauline Roberts, Vanessa Redgrave, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, Lois Smith, Harry Dean Stanton
Director: Sean Penn
Director: Sean Penn
Screenwriter: Jerzy Kromolowski, Mary Olson-Kromolowski
Producer: Michael Fitzgerald, Sean Penn, Elie Samaha
Composer: Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Pledge
Shows that a subdued Nicholson still packs more wallop than nearly all of his peers.
Packed with great performers who, no matter how briefly they may appear on camera, are given a scene or deliver a line of dialogue or even a mere look that is absolutely devastating.
It is understatement to say that Nicholson does some of the finest work of his career here.
I'll wager you won't see a better performance by a veteran American actor over the next 11 months.
Dark and disturbing but thoroughly involving. It sets off depth charges of the psyche.
In its dark, relentless, devastatingly ironic way, The Pledge is an exhilarating movie, partly because it isn't afraid to be genuinely challenging.
Not a film for all tastes, but it's a considerable artistic achievement.
Penn and Nicholson take risks with the material and elevate the movie to another, unanticipated, haunting level.
Smart, somber, characteristically understated and altogether chilling.
It is right to give it your adult time, when those on rich display include Redgrave, Stanton, Wright Penn, Mirren, Del Toro, Eckhart, Smith and the greatest American male star of the last 30 years.
Thanks to Nicholson, The Pledge hits viewers hardest as a superb character study, a poignant story of well-intentioned obsession.
Nicholson drives the piece with an understated, quietly roiling performance that's the most natural work he's done in at least a decade.
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