The Pledge (2001)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 120
Fresh: 93 | Rotten: 27
Though its subject matter is grim and may make viewers queasy, The Pledge features an excellent, subtle performance by Jack Nicholson.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 5
Though its subject matter is grim and may make viewers queasy, The Pledge features an excellent, subtle performance by Jack Nicholson.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
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Movie Info
Sean Penn directed this tense drama of loyalty, honor, and obsession, based on a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is a veteran police detective who lives and works in a small Nevada town. On the day of his retirement, it falls to Jerry to handle an especially unpleasant assignment -- a seven-year-old girl has been brutally murdered, and Jerry has to check out the crime scene, and then tell the girl's parents the awful news. The girl's mother (Patricia Clarkson),
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Cast
-
Jack Nicholson
Jerry Black -
Patricia Clarkson
Margret Larsen -
Benicio Del Toro
Toby Jay Wadenah -
Dale Dickey
Strom -
Aaron Eckhart
Stan Krolak -
Costas Mandylor
Monash Deputy -
Helen Mirren
Doctor -
Tom Noonan
Gary Jackson -
Michael O'Keefe
Duane Larson -
Robin Wright
Lori -
Vanessa Redgrave
Annalise Hansen -
Pauline Roberts
Chrissy -
Mickey Rourke
Jim Olstand -
Sam Shepard
Eric Pollack -
Lois Smith
Helen Jackson -
Harry Dean Stanton
Floyd Cage -
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All Critics (140) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (93) | Rotten (30) | DVD (22)
Mystery-thriller buffs, promise yourselves that you'll see The Pledge. And while you're at it, be sure to invite along Jack Nicholson fans and anyone who saw the first two movies that Sean Penn directed.
Penn can't be faulted for his work with the actors. Most of the featured players have only a scene or two, but they're indelible.
Ultimately, the payoffs just aren't there, either psychologically or dramatically.
This is one of Nicholson's finest performances and that's saying one hell of a lot.
A fierce, fragmented, downbeat film.
Sean Penn's agonizing, angst-ridden "The Pledge" feels like a mystery less about murder and more about the inexplicable dangers of impulse and guilt. It's also a waning opportunity to see Jack Nicholson as anything besides a silver-haired hornball.
Its grip is on the mind but not the heart--a problem for a film that clearly aims for some emotional impact.
Nicholson rules over The Pledge with a shaky hand, and that's the source of his power here.
After two honorable failures, Sean Penn makes quantum leap forward with an intriguing murder mystery that's also effective as a psychological character study. Nicholosn's riveting turn compensates for deliberate pacing and downbeat tone.
Penn shows restraint and patience, letting the actors discover moments, rhythms, and quirks that make their characters believable.
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Top Critic
Sean Penn is a director who seem to know how to pull brilliant performances from his actors. Jack Nicholson give us here what could be his career best performance. His detective Jerry Black might not be as iconic as Jake Gittes in Polanski's chinatown but it is character with more complexity and depth that Nicholson ever played. There are also solid sidecharacters here too and none of them feel irrelevant. Patricia Clarkson, Aaron Eckhart, Mickey Rourke and Vanessa Redgrave all give fanastic supporting performances here.
It is such a shame that Sean Penn and his cinematographer Chris Menges occasionally goes slightly over the top with film's visual look. There are moments which feel slightly too visually pumped up at times. This is a film that does not need all that restless camerawork to be exciting or suspenseful.
The Pledge is slightly flawed but deeply touching and thoughtful film which also has some moments of edge of your seat suspense. It is a must see also for that complex performance which Jack Nicholson give us. It truly carries the film from the very beginning to it's grim and haunting ending.