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Movies / Upcoming / The Pledge
The Pledge

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The Pledge (2001)

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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.

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Pledge

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101 - 120 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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The dreary film makes promises it doesn't deliver on, pulling the rug out from under us without really letting us step on it in the first place.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
01/19/01
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Penn's direction is given to flat, self-conscious realism. He has no feel for pacing, no cunning, no natural flow.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/19/01
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor
Salon.com

Thoughtlessness is no excuse ... for so revolting a film that The Pledge ultimately is. I couldn't wait to get out of the theater just to get the stink of it off me.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
01/19/01
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Moving with the speed of a paddle-boat upstream, the bulk of the movie is about as exciting as watching someone fish.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Report Card | comment Comment
01/19/01
Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

Penn gets bogged down in his own grand vision.

Full Review Source: Fresno Bee | comment Comment
01/19/01
Donald Munro
Donald Munro
Fresno Bee

While it's never uninteresting, and its story moves sinuously, quite deft and engaging ... it eventually becomes overbearing.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
01/19/01
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Jack Nicholson's performance is one of the best of his career, and is both intense and restrained, as is Penn's direction.

Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
01/18/01
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

It understands the relativism of right and wrong and takes a kind of perverse pleasure in reminding us that there are some things we'll never know.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/18/01
Michael O'Sullivan
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's an eerie, troubling piece of work -- a carefully crafted, existential thriller that represents a major artistic leap forward for Penn.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
01/18/01
Philip Booth
Philip Booth
Orlando Weekly

Jack Nicholson passes on the ham, delivering a subtle, weighted performance that neatly complements Sean Penn's growing confidence as a director.

Full Review Source: Mr. Showbiz | comment Comment
01/18/01
Lawrence Terenzi
Lawrence Terenzi
Mr. Showbiz

Penn's unending parade of unhappy situations is simply too insistent, his suffocating, claustrophobic worldview more of an assault than the revelation he perhaps hopes it will be.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/18/01
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Much of the film's power is in the worn gravity of watching 'Jack Nicholson' as he treads through a particularly obsessive and difficult character.

comment Comment
01/18/01
Robert Horton
Robert Horton
Film.com

Yes, it's grim, but if you don't need your plots sugar-coated, this film about life-change, obsession and keeping your word is an existential winner.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/18/01
Jane Sumner
Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News

Great acting doesn't compensate for weak writing.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
01/18/01
Todd Anthony
Todd Anthony
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

There are only varying degrees of misery in Penn's films, which make them as real as your own skin.

comment Comment
01/18/01
Robert Wilonsky
Robert Wilonsky
New Times

Damned if Penn doesn't draw you inside this labyrinth of existential murk.

comment Comment
01/18/01
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Thanks to a superb central performance by Nicholson as detective Black, it's a film that compels, thrills and ends up coming very close to tragedy.

comment Comment
01/18/01
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune

Drags us through dark places, without convincing us it's a journey worth taking.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
01/18/01
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There's very little compelling, or even memorable, about it.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
01/18/01
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

So logy and doom-laden that watching it feels like a hike through waist-deep snow.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
01/18/01
Tom Block
Tom Block
culturevulture.net
 
 
101 - 120 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Latest News for The Pledge

January 11, 2009: JackNicholson.org: The Jack Nicholson Pledge Interview: Breaking His Own Embargo On Letting it All Hang Out Opens in new window
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