The Pledge is the third directorial outing from Hollywood dissident Sean Penn, again with Nicholson as lead. He plays Jerry Black, a retiring detective who, on his last day of work, has to deal with the disturbing rape and murder of an 8 year old girl. He makes a promise to the grieving mother that he and his colleagues will bring the killer to justice and, despite leaving the force, continues to investigate the case.
From this it could easily have become a routine police thriller, with Jack moaning about how he�s too old for this and him fighting to keep the case open despite his department being adamant that they�ve got their man (in the form of Benicio Del Toro�s Native Indian). For a little while it seems to be developing this theme, however the film soon ignores this obvious path and instead the emphasis is Jerry�s inability to cope with retirement and lack of any structure in his life. He becomes uncomfortably obsessive with the case, it seems to permeate every decision he makes and although he has the chance of a peaceful, fulfilling new life, he just can�t keep it from the back of his mind and becomes dangerously close to self-destructing.
Nicholson is superb, and along with Robin Williams (Insomnia, One Hour Photo) is quietly and professionally executing a change in career direction to a much more restrained and mature vein, further perfected in About Schmidt.
The rest of the cast are good too. Penn says he wanted unknowns but didn�t have the time to audition so instead he used his reputation to provide an array of quite amazingly recognizable support, several of whom have only one scene. All of this only adds to the pedigree. His direction, if not flashy, is in no way faulty and despite his obvious acting talents, we should see more output from the Penn the director in the future. |
