THE PLEDGE Reviewed by Jerry Saravia January 27th, 2001
After seeing Sean Penn's latest directorial effort, "The Pledge," I am convinced that Penn can work equally well on both sides of the camera. He is an exceptionally superb actor but his first two films as a director, "The Indian Runner" and "The Crossing Guard," showcased his stunning ability to write sharply defined characters and to know how to get the most out of his actors. He has had the macho ethic of actors like Dennis Hopper, Charles Bronson, David Morse and, yes, Jack Nicholson diminished in favor of showing men grappling with the sins of their past. Nicholson is the star of "The Pledge," and it is his most gripping portrayal yet in what remains Penn's best film by far.
Nicholson is the retired Nevada cop Jerry Black, a man torn by the latest savage murder of a little girl. The night of his retirement party is the night he chooses to investigate the case, despite the averse reactions of the hotshot detective Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) and his former boss (Sam Shepard). A mentally challenged Indian (Benicio Del Toro) is seen at the scene of the crime and is forced to confess to the murder but Jerry doesn't buy it - he feels the real killer is still on the loose. And to temporarily relieve his retirement, Jerry makes a pledge to the dead girl's mother (a devastatingly fierce Patricia Clarkson) to find the killer.
I know what you are all going to say - the same old story about a cop resting on his gut instincts to solve one last case. "The Pledge" stars off as a routine cop story but what unfolds afterwards is stimulating, haunting and unpredictable. This is no ordinary movie-of-the-week and it is no action thriller - it is, my goodness, an existential character study of one man's pledge and obsession leading to madness and despair. Sounds too depressing? Well, yes, but who says all movies need to end in happy endings?
As the film progresses, Jerry buys a gas station following a hunch that the killer resides in a nearby county. There is also the suspected car model deduced from the dead girl's drawing of a tall man who gave her porcupine chocolates. I will not say much more except that Jerry meets the local town waitress (Robin Wright-Penn) and his intentions with her and her own daughter are not what they seem.
"The Pledge" is full of symbolic montages, beautiful, lush scenery, and Penn's typical slow-motion scenes punctuated by moments of silence. One terrific moment is likely to be missed where a long shot of Jerry fishing on a lake with a rainbow in the distance mirrors one of the dead girl's drawings. I also love the scene where Jerry breaks the news to the girl's parents in a turkey farm - a typical scene powerfully executed.
Nicholson uses admirable restraint as Jerry Black, in lieu of his trademark persona, for a complex portrait of a man who may be losing his marbles investigating a seemingly no-win case. He shares some great scenes with actors like Vanessa Redgrave as the dead girl's teacher, Helen Mirren as a child psychologist, Tom Noonan as the local Reverend, Harry Dean Stanton as the owner of a gas station, and Mickey Rourke in a heartfelt performance as the dad of one of the other murdered girls in town.
"The Pledge" begins with Nicholson scratching his legs and muttering to himself, and the frustration the character feels at slaving away on this murder case is felt by the audience. "The Pledge" is a pessimistic, tough-minded film that stays on course through its existential journey. For the last year or so, I've been saying that in this postmodern world of cinema, irony has replaced existentialism and that stories are now bereft of the risks they used to take, particularly with characters as unsentimental as Jerry. "The Pledge" is proof that some directors are willing to take the plunge into the sea of despair without making compromises. Bravo Sean Penn!
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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