Review of Proof Through the Night Toby Quirk
Warning: this is an existential parable, non a detective story
Warning: Spoilers
In fact the novella by the Swiss writer Friedrich Duerrenmatt, to which this screenplay is pretty much truthful, I guess (I've but read the Wikipedia synopsis) is subtitled "Requiem for the Detective Novel," and moreover it has a framing device which clues in the reader correct away that his/her expectations should exist held on a tight leash. This film lacks similar warning labels, a flaw for which I'm knocking off a star as information technology inevitably makes people mad and dislocated (see another user reviews).
Furthermore not everyone wants to spend two hours on an existential parable. I wasn't really prepared for it myself, and when information technology was over I had a period where I idea Sean Penn had played an irritating prank on me, sort of like someone who tells y'all a long involved joke with a really stupid punch line. But when I had thought most it a few minutes I developed a better appreciation of the philosophical bug that the picture was raising.
To give you a sense of those issues: when Victor Frankl was in a Nazi expiry camp, he had written a philosophical manuscript, and another prisoner asked him what the point of this was, since they were probably all going to dice in that location and the manuscript would be forgotten. Frankl replied, "What kind of value system would I have to take, if I let my actions depend on whether I was going to get killed by Nazis and whether anyone was going to read the manuscript?" I acknowledge to beingness hazy on the details of this story, but I am confident that I am getting the general thought.
This movie follows detective-story conventions up to a indicate, and the point comes about ten minutes before the end of the motion picture. (Expect bigger and bigger spoilers as this review progresses.)
Jerry Black is on his last day as sheriff of Reno, Nevada, land of ice fishing, Norwegians and hockey fans (the screenplay was written for Minnesota) and is ready to retire and get downward to Mexico and fish, when he sits in on the botched arrest and interrogation of a mentally challenged Indian charged with the murder of a little girl. His successor has gotten a confession and is happy with the result. Jerry, who has sworn on the cantankerous to the girl'due south female parent to grab the killer, doesn't get on his plane. He goes out and interviews some big stars in cameo roles, and works out that at that place is a serial pedophile murderer out there, and figures out pretty much where he must live and some other things about him.
Nobody else is willing to get on the trail, and so Jerry devotes his life to the pursuit; he buys a live-in gas station / store and starts watching for suspects. He meets a woman (Lori, played by Robin Wright) with an abusive husband and a daughter in the predator's target zone; they move in with him, and he starts using the daughter as bait. There is a disturbing parallel between the mode he grooms the daughter for her role and the way the predator himself must operate. It's not that he doesn't intendance for the daughter - he does - but he is taking conspicuously unethical risks with her, without cluing in the mother. In a usual picture, that would be enough of an upshot. Also his obsession seems to be undermining his mental remainder.
Finally, after some red herrings, we get to the point (it is now fifteen minutes before the end of the film) where the predator (identity unknown to Jerry) is expected to come up for the girl. Jerry brings in his skeptical sheriff buddy with a SWAT team to surroundings the area, they wait, and -
And the predator doesn't come up. (Because, equally we know, but nobody else in the movie realizes, he has had a fatal auto accident on the way there.) Jerry at present loses everything. His cop friends write him off as a "drunkard and a clown." Lori hates him and leaves. So far as he knows he has completely failed; the killer is all the same out at that place; his mind goes; he is left drinking and mumbling to himself in the ruins of his life. THE End.
You tin can encounter how existential this all is. You lot try to live your life, achieve something, grab the killer, curlicue a rock upwardly the colina similar Sisyphus; you give everything; so something cool happens and everything gets taken away from y'all, leaving you without even the cognition that you've achieved anything (if you have). That'southward life. That'due south bloodshed. That'due south what Stoics would say we just have to have. I actually pretty much appreciate the point. And information technology was all done very competently by the ensemble. So I'thousand very glad I saw it. Merely if I hadn't had a Wikipedia article on Duerrenmatt on paw, besides every bit some previous encounters with postwar existentialist European thought, boy, would I have been grumpy nearly the whole thing.
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Unexpected
Having seen "The Pledge" without knowing much near it, I got something other than what I bargained for. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
If you're looking for a adept whodunit, avert this movie. If y'all're looking for a fast-paced thriller, avoid this movie. But if you're into seeing an intense graphic symbol report bolstered by impressive acting and clever directing (kudos, Sean Penn), y'all've come to the right place.
I read one IMDB review calling this film Nicholson's worst ever. This is not true -- that reviewer patently never saw "Human being Trouble" -- but I can see why some folks really don't like this picture show. It doesn't deliver what you'd await, and what information technology does deliver is neither conventional nor uplifting. In fact, information technology's pretty depressing. Just if yous ponder the story afterward, you realize there's a certain dark justice at piece of work hither. Like, blacklight nighttime.
So then, "The Pledge" is not a light and frothy piece, merely if you're the type who thinks watching some poor b**tard'south descent into madness is entertainment, have at it.
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Slow & Powerful
I had rather depression expectations for The Pledge - even though I've admired Penn as an histrion (Dead Human Walking, Racing With The Moon, etc.) I really didn't care much for his writing/directing attempts (Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard) so I finally got around to watching this on cablevision and I was not prepared for how intriguing, intelligent and emotionally powerful the movie was. Yeah, obviously, from other people'due south comments, this isn't every i's cup of tea. Fine. You want quickie thriller, wall to wall action - get picket Con Air or something. Popcorn movies are fine. People need to turn off their brains and escape every now and then (Unfortunately for large budget movies - its more Now and very rarely THEN)> So that is why I really enjoyed the slow pace and the ambiguity of the plot - it left things out there for you to find, to find, to ponder. Nicholson - who is so capable of just phoning it in lately or only doing a gig for a paycheck (Acrimony Direction - YIKES!!!) - but here he really delivers a stiff, aching performance. He is surrounded by excellent actors (peculiarly Del Toro, Eckhart and a very impressive tiny scene from Mickey Rourke). I know at that place are huge fans of the High german book and the movie - I will seek them out. Merely I accept watched this film twice and it is even more powerful the second time. One Can be driven mad past NEVER knowing something and then ghastly, something then important.
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Superb drama. Top 5 of the decade then far without a doubt!
I have been an admirer of Sean Penn's previous directorial efforts ('The Indian Runner' and 'The Crossing Guard'), but he has really surpassed himself with this one. Re-teamed with Jack Nicholson he has helped that legendary actor create his best on screen performance since his 1970s top ('Five Easy Pieces', 'Concluding Detail', 'Cuckoo's Nest', 'Marvin Gardens' et al). Nicholson has always been sensational but over the last 10 years or so has sleepwalked his mode through way too many movies, culminating in his irritating and mannered functioning in the cliched and sentimental claptrap 'As Practiced As Information technology Gets'. 'The Pledge' has obviously recharged his creative batteries. He is simply stunning in this film.
Nicholson is supported by a superlative array of actors, ranging from Aaron Eckhart ('The Visitor Of Men') and Sam Shepard ('The Right Stuff') to British vets Helen Mirren and Vanessa Redgrave, to Nicholson'south sometime cronies Lois Smith ('V Easy Pieces') and Harry Dean Stanton ('The Rebel Rousers'). While the cast is packed with familiar faces, none are costless, all are first rate, and contribute to the overall excellence of the flick. Special mention must be made to the memorable cameos of Benicio Del Toro, and an every bit peculiarly compelling performance by Mickey Rourke. Long underrated and ofttimes ridiculed, Rourke again shows simply how compelling he is every bit an actor.
'The Pledge' sticks out like a sore thumb in today'due south climate of wall to wall action movies, impaired comedies, and contrived "blockbusters". This is a real pic, with outstanding acting and a haunting story. Sadly fewer and fewer movies of this calibre are hitting the big screen, so treasure it!
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Masterful Film
Warning: Spoilers
Saw this moving picture on cablevision last night (only the last hr. or then) & it was extraordinary. Nicholson gives both a moving & harrowing performance as an onetime, difficult-drinking, washed upward police detective. Though his character is in the dregs, he still manages to hogtie our empathy. Not since "Ironweed" has he attempted a character and then thoroughly seedy.
His relationship due west. Robin WRight & Wright'southward girl is affecting; and the plot developments around the child murderer stalking the girl are riveting.
The film concludes in a downbeat mode that only a director similar Sean Penn would take been brave plenty to attempt in this era of happy Hollywood endings. Though we as audition know that Nicholson was correct in his suspicions of the murderer, none of the characters (including Nicholson's) realize this. At the end, everyone gives up on Nicholson, believes he is nuts; & he in turn reverts to a life of booze & unintelligible muttering. It is heartbreaking to watch. As y'all picket Wright flay Nicholson for letting her girl be a lure for the murderer; and we watch Nicholson react w. sullen silence to the onslaught, we are twisted into paroxysms of sadness for him. You realize the moral complexity of the state of affairs: in order to keep faith due west. other parents who've lost children to this murderer, Nicholson has endangered the daughter of a woman he has come to love. And she in turn comes to hate him when she learns what he has washed. This is a profound moral dilemma.
Penn has created a masterful flick, proving yet once more that he is i of our better directors. "The Pledge" is ane of which he can rightly feel proud.
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Jack Nicholson in a tormenting, riveting performance. ***1/2 out of four)
THE PLEDGE / (2001) ***1/2 (out of four)
By Blake French:
Don't become to "The Pledge" expecting it to be a suspense thriller with a lot of fast-paced action and the tension acme loftier. Past the misleading trailer and TV ads, I was personally expecting the above. "The Pledge," directed by the underrated role player and producer Sean Penn, is more of an unraveling drama than a genuine nail-biter. The moving-picture show is a lot more than a conventional, run of the factory chiller. Information technology vividly describes the process in which a person goes through before he reaches the state of insanity. The motion-picture show is most outwardly near obsession and commitment, more subtly about loneliness and depravity. This is i the most unusually absorbing movies of the new year.
Sean Penn is oftentimes overlooked as a Hollywood figure. He is an histrion more often so he is a director (his nigh memorable directing feature was "The Crossing Guard"), only his work quite variegated. In 1998, Penn Portrayed a Sergeant in Terrence Malick'south acclaimed state of war drama "The Thin Red Line," and a drug addicted Hollywood casting agent in "Hurlyburly." In 1997, he portrayed Michael Douglas' estranged blood brother in David Fincher'south mystery thriller "The Game," and a downwards-on-his-luck drifter in Oliver Rock's gritty film noir "U-Plough." He delivered his most powerful performance in 1995 as a human being on death row in "Dead Man Walking." At present, with "The Pledge" he is harrowing and intense, even though the script is often tedious moving and monotonous. The stark edge and superior direction give the movie an authentic feel and emotional vigor. Sean Penn once again proves himself to exist an excellent filmmaker peculiarly behind the screen.
The enormously talented, University Award winner Jack Nicholson stars as the retiring Reno homicide detective Jerry Black. Jerry is a superb investigator, and when he examines his concluding instance, the sexual set on and murder of an eight-year-old girl, he promises the victim'southward mother he will find the individual in accuse of the atrocity. Police quickly bring in a mentally handicapped American Indian (Benicio Del Toro), who was found fleeing the crime scene and previously served time for rape and diverse other crimes. It appears that the officers found the man responsible, and when he confesses to the criminal offence and kills himself, the other officers, including Jerry'southward friend, Stan (Aaron Eckhart), and their dominate (Sam Shepard), consider this an open up-shut example. Jerry has a gut-feeling this person is non who they are looking for, however.
The remainder of the movie is not about a police investigation, just more about Jerry Black's reaction to the events that take taken place. His obsession with communicable the killer eventually leads to him going crazy, after he betrays his new friends, a single female parent (Robin Wright Penn), and her young daughter. I personally desired more material involving the investigation instead of the development of the relationship betwixt him and Robin Wright Penn'southward character, but that is not what the movie intended for united states of america to lookout man. Regardless, the story arguably begins at its strongest indicate, and gradually losses much momentum as the mystery is not fully explored, and certain elements experience setup but are not paid off.
Some of the product's technical areas are also very astonishing, similar the original music by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, and the cinematography by Chris Menges. Such ambient factors make for a sleepy and tranquil mood like to the i in "Fargo." This film's soundtrack contains enthralling, refreshing, and captivating instrumental tones. Jack Nicholson is tormenting, riveting. He is the fundamental of the movie, and it doesn't pretends otherwise. His operation provides energy for the story.
"The Pledge" is the type of movie that leaves united states of america pondering near the opportunities passed past and the chances missed past the characters, the ironic coincidences, and the perplexing twists. The catastrophe leaves u.s. with more questions than answers, only that factor contributes profoundly to the emotional bear on the film has. "The Pledge" could have been more than than information technology is, but considering the temptations the screenwriters overcame, it is more than what most of u.s. would await.
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Never have and then many people got the killer'due south identity wrong
Warning: Spoilers
A brilliant movie, surely i of the masterpieces of 21st century cinema to date. It is its fate to be under-rated and under-appreciated, but to those who can come across, its genius is obvious and compelling.
While the identity of the murderer is definitely NOT the point, it IS clearly and unambiguously revealed; however, judging from countless misinterpretations and misidentifications, both here and overheard in the cinema when I saw it, this obviously counts every bit a spoiler even for a lot of people who Accept already seen the film...
SPOILERS The killer is seen simply in passing. He is the homo, called "Oliver" by his married woman, in the "State of Christmas" shop. If you re-sentry the moving-picture show closely, this should exist apparent. If yous need more explicitly listed show, proceed reading.
The killer, known as the Magician, is very tall, to the signal where one of the victims calls him a giant. Note the shot from in a higher place the door of the "Country of Christmas" shop when Nicholson enters. The photographic camera is inside the store, in a higher place the door, looking down towards the floor. The bell that rings catches our attention, just if you wait again you will come across how unusually high this door is - see how much taller the door is than Nicholson? Much higher than a normal-sized door. This shot is too repeated almost the very end of the moving picture, in the sequence where all the clues to the killer'due south identity are summarised.
When we do glimpse Oliver in the store, in the scene where Nicholson enters the "Land of Christmas" asking for directions to the daughter'due south grandmother'southward house, he has the grayness hair that we see the killer has when driving towards the rendezvous at the finish of the flick (which he never reaches due to the accident). We learn subsequently that the girl would visit the "Land of Christmas", also.
Later the killer has started his drive towards the rendezvous, as function of the "clue summarising" nosotros return to the "Country of Christmas", with his wife calling out for him.
The absolute clincher, though, is the fact that the "Land of Christmas" sells small chocolate "porcupines". (We see his wife mention them and take out a box of them when she is searching for him.) It was of form these that he would give to his victims, as depicted in the child's cartoon.
Incidentally, the indicate of the close-up of the rear-vision mirror in the burning motorcar is to show the small porcupine figurine hanging from it. The Tom Noonan graphic symbol is a decoy, and definitely not the killer.
Hopefully anyone re-watching it after reading the higher up will be able to run into for themselves. :) One fascinating angle I've non seen commented on is the way Penn's tirade at Nicholson at the terminate of the picture show would, word for give-and-take, apply just as well as if Nicholson had been abusing her daughter himself... Rewatch the scene and come across how well that jibes.
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A Haunting Motion-picture show With A Great Soundtrack
Unsatisfying endings commonly make for box-part bombs and I suspect this one bombed, as well. I don't particularly care for them, myself. I'd rather feel good at the cease of the film, just I really liked this picture in a strange kind of way. It'south weird but it's original and information technology stayed with me for several days afterward. On the second viewing, knowing what to expect, it didn't haunt me but it was worth that 2nd look....and probably a third one in a few years, as well. I didn't care for some of the anti-Christian tones in here, however. That is my but complaint of the movie. A primal graphic symbol - a government minister - is made to look evil (typical film-world bias).
The rest of the moving picture has a lot to offer: a keen functioning past Jack Nicholson; a very dainty music score; skilful cinematography; interesting characters and a dissimilar, almost-shocking twist at the terminate.
The best part of the film is Nicholson. As usual, Jack is very interesting, playing a low-key role here. The story might exist too slow for a lot of folks merely it kept my interest all the mode. On the second viewing, I appreciated the music even more - a great soundtrack!
If you are looking for a offense pic that is different, cheque this out, but don't blame me if you don't like the ending.
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Nicholson carries a flawed, all the same watchable film
I don't recall I've always said "Oh wow" as many times before as I did in the opening credits of 'The Pledge'. Huge name after huge name just kept actualization. Every fourth dimension I thought that had to be the stop of it, another massive star would pop up. It turns out a lot of them were only in that location for very short cameos, simply however to run across all those people in one motion-picture show was pretty cool.
The real star of the testify at the end of the day though is Jack Nicholson. I forget what an incredibly charismatic and natural thespian he was. Every scene he'south in feels so effortless and organic. I actually suspect a very large portion of my enjoyment of this film was simply downward to his functioning.
The movie itself was a strange one. It sets upwards a actually interesting premise, with a retired investigator who thinks the real killer of children is withal on the loose. Instead of going and hunting him though, he more or less decides to wait him out with some bait set up. Information technology'southward not the worst thought, but it doesn't make for equally interesting of a film.
Then there's the ending. I won't go into whatsoever details. I'll only say I did not care for it. And I usually love different and unique endings. Simply nosotros had invested too much time and care into this story for that to be the conclusion. It felt inexpensive, unrealistic and extremely unsatisfying.
At the end of the mean solar day though it'due south going to be very difficult to make a bad film with Nicholson equally your pb. I enjoyed this flick, without ever loving it.
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Remember twice before yous sentry this one.
Warning: Spoilers
My summary is Not because I disliked "The Pledge". However, 2 things nigh the flick make it very tough viewing. The story is near a sicko who rapes and murders children. This is Non an piece of cake matter to sentry. Additionally, there is an absolutely horrific scene...and my wife bailed on the moving picture post-obit it...and she's not especially nice. Yous run across what looks very real as a human being shoots himself in the caput...blood and all! Exist forewarned...this is not an easy flick.
Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is a law primary who is retiring. His last example involves the rape and murder of a 2d grader...and he takes the parents ache to heart and pledges to find the killer. Although he's at present retired, he spends his retirement searching for the person responsible...and it appears every bit if they've killed several times already.
There is much more to the story than this and the bulk of the picture is Black post-retirement...and his life and the plot unfolds very slowly and lovingly. You actually like the guy and intendance for those around him. And, that brings me to a disappointing affair about the moving picture. I actually loved it to this point (despite the suicide and the squicky plot)...the finale really felt unsatisfying and vague. The reasons for this are in the IMDB trivia...the studio ran out of money! This also might brand it tough to watch...or at to the lowest degree frustrating. Information technology'southward a real shame, as I really, really liked the performances and the actors deserved amend.
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Beware - Major Spoilers Throughout
Warning: Spoilers
The catastrophe of this movie stinks. It is the equivalent of telling a child a very suspenseful tale of a prince and a dragon. You build up skillfully to a climactic battle, and every bit the prince is raising his sword, you lot say, "But the dragon of a sudden had a brain aneurysm and died, leaving the prince looking like a fool who lived unhappily ever after. Hey... sh*t happens, you know?"
Before the sneers and mutterings of "philistine" begin, let me say that I know what the screenwriters and the director were going for -- Greek tragedy: a good man, a Hero is brought to ruin by a fatal flaw in his character. The problem is that hither, as in all storytelling, a tragic ending must also exist a satisfying one for the audience. No matter how sad the hero'southward fall/demise, no affair what plot twists occur, one has to be able to say, "Well, that's tragic, simply information technology had to happen. It was inevitable." It'south a storytelling tightrope, from which the screenwriters and director roughshod from slap-up heights, crashed and burned.
In trying to throw a bend, they threw a spitball; they cheated. A deus ex machina ("Car of the Gods") is a phony dramatic contrivance where the Gods step in at the terminate of a story and brand everything right again. The hero is off the claw. What happened to the series killer here was worse than a deus ex machina. He is killed by coincidence. That'southward just adulterous.
I would like to suggest what would take been a truly tragic catastrophe. Make Jerry Black a lonelier man. Ane whose two failed marriages have left him without promise of having a family. Then he meets Lori and Chrissy. His unexpected love for them grows to *near* the size of his obsession with catching the killer. Give him a true choice betwixt dear & obsession and let him pick the wrong ane. Then permit him take hold of the goddamned killer. And afterward he does, this Hero, having fulfilled his job, turns for honey and admiration to Lori, who lets him have the same speech she does at present and whisks herself and her girl out of his life. Black then fully realizes what his heroic selection has price him, and ends upwardly lonely, embittered and maybe mad.
That would accept been a satisfying catastrophe, because the way things play now, hither'due south what the audience is thinking, "He deserves to catch the killer. He does not deserve to accept this family later on endangering Chrissy so horribly."
The ending of "The Pledge" is desperately, terribly wrong, as it trashes what upwards until and so was one of the finest suspense films I've always seen and i of Jack Nicholson'due south greatest performances.
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Gripping
Faithful to the book in most regards, the film is excellent, and Nicholson's performance is beyond reproach. While the denouement may have had bug (not with the bespeak or the pregnant, simply rather the delivery), the moving picture is even so outstanding.
Nicholson's human relationship with the girl (he is beautiful as an aged father) and his inexorable obsession with the murderer are perfect in the film. Sadly, Penn's pacing is inconsistent, every bit is the sense of "detective" that Duerenmatt was careful to requite his novel: the film'southward heartbeat ranges from driving to rambling, and near thematically appropriate may have been a measured trounce which is lacking hither.
Still, the film is gripping, and captures the point, spirit and feel of the novel perfectly. It may not pull off the fox of being both faithful and profitable, but the film is true, and the interim impeccable.
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Non entirely disarming
Alarm: Spoilers
In short, this is a story nigh a decent man driven to madness by an obsession. This story line has been covered with bully success by many film makers and screenwriters many times earlier, but Penn's endeavour falls short, mainly due to a contrived and highly coincidental storyline.
Nicholson plays a cop who is inbound retirement. Simply hours before he is officially retired a young girl is found raped and killed. The but witness is a young boy who sees a long haired Indian homo running from the scene of the criminal offence. The boy does not see the law-breaking happening. The Indian is rapidly located and brought to the the police force station. Turns out that he has past convictions for child abuse and drugs. He is as well clearly retarded and with a little plodding from the cops confesses to the murder so shoots himself with a cop's gun. Case closed correct? Non and so for Nicholson. He has promised the dead daughter's parents that he will observe the killer, and he is not convinced the Indian did it. Needles to solar day his fellow cops do not agree and the case is closed. Nicholson goes on his retirement but his hope still plays on his mind.
At present begins a long and at times unnecessarily meandering tale of Nicholson'southward slow degeneration into mad obsession. Penn tries to bring conviction to the story past portraying Nicholson attempting to settle down into a life of normal retirement and even so driven into pursuing the investigation past a serial of subtle events that persuades him that the actual killer is all the same at large. This type of mood story requires skilled handling by the managing director, and Penn does not seem to take it (length does non necessarily create mood). Along the way we see Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren and Mickey Rourke in a series of cameos. Does zero to ameliorate the story though.
Nicholson in the central role acts similar he is doing a favour to Penn past appearing in this pic. He does not appear to exist giving 100% to this role. At times he looks like even he is unconvinced about the transformation of his character.
The most noteworthy attribute of this moving picture is Penn'south ability to go so many great actors together for this movie. Pity that their presence is not going to save this movie from obscurity.
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Fabled - didn't want information technology to cease!
Sean Penn proves himself a starting time-charge per unit managing director who gets moving, deep performances out of all his actors. And what a supporting cast - in improver to Nicholson (at his virtually subtle, something he doesn't always do), in that location's Harry Dean Stanton, Benecio Del Toro, Tom Noonan, Vanessa Redgrave, Robin Wright Penn, the list goes on and on with the best charactor actors around. Del Toro does something completely dissimilar once again. The story is very moving and about at the level of a Greek tragedy. Beautifully shot and edited with skilful use of score. The best drama I've seen in quite a while.
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It's great to come across professionals at work
I'thousand not that crazy about the story, which has been put to film at least twice before. (I call up the other movie is The Common cold Low-cal of Twenty-four hour period.) In the other moving picture, which was set in one of the Soviet bloc countries, there was too a serial killer after young girls, and the detective makes the morally questionable determination to put a girlfriends daughter unknowingly at run a risk to apply as bait. The swingset for the daughter abreast the route (where the killer would be sure to come across her) was copied over from the novel.
For sheer moviemaking prowess, though, this team of actors and Penn as the manager is unbeatable. Every functioning comes across with perfect sincerity and you forget y'all are looking at famous actors. At that place are some surreal touches as well, when bit players from the early on role show upward on screen late in the story with non speaking roles.
Four stars. Fifty-fifty if you don't like Jack Nicholson.
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A fine, thoughtful motion-picture show
Alarm: Spoilers
The Pledge is one of the few films directed by the at present respected (if not past the makers of Team America) actor Sean Penn, and it manages to simultaneously remind u.s. why he should directly more, and that Jack Nicholson can act.
Let's face it, information technology'southward been a while – our Jack interim, that is. Most of the time he merely tilts his head, gives the states a manic stare and says "Hither'due south Johnny" in that patented (exclusive rights to Nicholson and his younger avatar, Slater) drawl.
Ostensibly, The Pledge is a detective story, with Nicholson playing a retiring police officer (Jerry Black) trying to runway downward the killer of a immature girl. Speedily, a Native American is brought in and induced to confess, although we're never certain whether the confession related to an earlier crime. He then shoots himself. Job done, co-ordinate to about of the police officers, merely not Jerry. He doubts the confession, and has pledged a solemn oath to the girl's mother to detect her killer.
The Pledge is not actually a detective story, though, and there volition exist no prizes for guessing the killer's identity. The staggeringly obvious choice of Tom Noonan (of Manhunter fame) is proof enough of that. Absolutely, Hollywood is capable of merely such crassness of casting where suspense is required, but not, I suspect, Penn.
But suspense is at best a distant 2nd in this film; it is more a report of pursuit and how a goal can blind usa to the present, and to our actions. Nicholson'southward functioning is truly breathtaking, and one wonders how it could accept made barely a ripple when the moving picture came out. Gone is the trademark uber-functioning. In its identify we are given subtlety, a man playing his historic period with dignity, and an uncompromising have on obsession, loneliness and folly. If there is a problem in the film it is in his relationship with the much younger Wright Penn. Information technology'south implausible, merely somehow the gravity defying Nicholson manages even to make that convincing.
The movie is watchable for Nicholson's operation solitary and it could easily have been a vehicle project. Credit to Penn, though, that he was able to assemble such a distinguished cast for. Robin Wright Penn (okay, perchance she wasn't and then difficult), Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave and Mickey Rourke all requite fine vignettes. Simply perhaps the most amazing performance was Benicio Del Toro as Toby Wadenah, the accused Native American. I knew he was in the film (one of my reasons for watching it) but I had to double have when I saw him. His performance was scenic and worth watching the unabridged pic, simply for the 5 minutes he was in it.
Sean Penn'due south directorial style is like to Clint Eastwood'southward. He leaves a lot of space in The Pledge and the film gain at a measured pace coming in at merely over two hours, which allows the actors plenty of room to work. His characters are mainly working class or lower centre class. The camera-piece of work is starkly beautiful rather than pretty, and focuses on a bleak America that gets little airtime from the soft focus brigade in California.
Penn is also, like Eastwood, brave plenty to tie up the ends loosely at best. The ending may be downbeat, just it is uplifting to see that American movie house is still capable of making films like this. 8/10
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Well worth finding merely don't watch it on a "bad" 24-hour interval !
Warning: Spoilers
This was another of my notorious "VHS auction at the local library" purchases. I had never heard of it but it had Nicholson in it and the write up looked interesting so into the pocketbook information technology went.
Jack Nicholson actually appears as someone other than Jack Nicholson in this one. He does not shout, excessively scroll his eyes or swear nonstop. He is quite subdued and he even goes fishing .... often! Jack is surrounded by an outstanding bandage of big name actors playing extended cameo roles.
Managing director Sean Penn seems to be drawn to these ... lets say "less than sunny" stories simply he handles them well and was able to describe out the "sometime Nicholson" who actually seemed to savor what he was doing. .
The catastrophe is rather muddled and we are left non really knowing exactly who the killer was but sometimes that'south only the style life is.
Non action filled, rather bloody just not gratuitously, graphic symbol study more anything. If you can find it, lookout it.
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All the comments I read are equally, love information technology or hate it. I'll settle the dispute.
The Pledge is a....... good movie.
I see how people can dislike it, it is a kind of long movie, and you accept to be patient with information technology. The ending is kind of frustrating to those seeking all the answers, just anyone with a fairly open up mind will similar it instantly.
The film was good, I liked it, my mom and my fiddling sister even liked it.
Sean Penn made certain not to endeavour to win over a crown using the generic entreatment, sex, gore, et cetera. He was very classy with this movie, proficient job on his office.
Acting was good throughout the picture, Jack Nicholson did a good chore, I peculiarly liked Benicio Del Toro's part, even though information technology was not too long.
I don't know, pretty much, information technology's a good movie, nada out of the ball park. Merely it is worth the sentinel.
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Driving you Crazy
tedg 2 February 2001
Warning: Spoilers
Spoilers herein.
The nuts: Penn is the next Woody Allen, merely more adept and more visceral. His own understanding of acting attracts some top flight talent, and here they are all as skillful as information technology gets. Even Micky Rourke is powerful! Nicholson starts a new career. Making a film is all almost abstraction, and since information technology is a collective art, managing all the abstractions and so that a single vision projects. The odder the vision, the more worthwhile, and the harder to corral. This man ruthlessly exploits everything that streams at us (including the music -- so apt).
Del Toro is worth mentioning considering he is currently in two other films of merit. Simply the cinematic wink there is all in support of either goose egg (Snatch) or thin narrative support for a relatively vapid insight (Traffic). Here, not only is Del Toro amazingly real, simply the whole film delivers powerful dramatic effect integrated with narrative, unlike the other ii which are mostly dance.
The IMDB comments posted before this are largely negative, and I speculate these are from younger folk -- further that the audience Pledge grabs in the gut will exist among more experienced souls. The catastrophe is neat, the biggest emotional cliff since `Limbo.'
But all that is just surface stuff -- a man pledging his soul and losing it when the deal is usatisfiable. The really interesting thing is the ambiguity of the narrative. We know Penn is concerned with this event -- really hot among thinking directors for the past couple years. Here he (and the original volume) play Nabokov -- the pacing of the motion-picture show resembles a madman's reminiscences. Yeah, there are too many coincidences in the story. Yes it is framed past a mad drunkard'southward mumblings. Yes, the camera deliberately takes non-contemporary human viewer perspectives. Yep, there are discontinuities. Yeah, the `Lolita' references were many and obvious.
What nosotros have here folks is a multilayered weaving of reality and imagination. We saw Penn deed at these 2 levels simultaneously in Woody's `Sugariness and Lowdown.' Now he coaches buddy Jack (who has more to give and more than to lose) into a more nuanced dual-level performance. This will endure when `Snatch' is long gone.
This is the offset ten I requite in 12 months of theater releases. That'due south about 100 films.
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Nicholson shines in a subversive thriller
Warning: Spoilers
'The Pledge' works largely because and then much of it is playing with the expectations and prejudices of information technology's audience.Nicholson stars as a retiring cop who has one concluding case. Sound familiar? It feels like a law drama for a lot of information technology until the last deed which I retrieve would have made a far more interesting motion-picture show had information technology been expanded into a full length story. Nicholson'south character is obsessed with finding a serial killer who may or may non be. He comes to the betoken where he seduces a bartender to apply her little girl as bait to catch the killer. This is where the movie turns and becomes fresh. It's an understated operation and a lamentable character Nicholson brings to life. I gets the feeling the moving picture is every bit much about aging and find a style to stay relevant.
It as well has an outstanding supporting cast loaded with top notch grapheme actors. Aaron Eckhardt, Sam Shepherd, Helen Mirren, Costas Mandylor, Mickey Rourke, Patricia Clarkson, Tom Noonan all turn in memorable scenes. My 1 gripe is that it is far too clean looking a moving picture. It has that aforementioned pristine expect that a lot of the thrillers from the early 00's have. There's no temper in the lighting or cinematography. The chief thing is it's color palette is so bland. This could accept been a great stylistic noir film in the hands of Fincher.
Sean Penn and Nicholson know what the beats of this kind of film and they play them until they reach the vivid final deed. The result is something fresh and frightening. While discussing the film I heard it referred to as a "meta movie". That term is expressionless on. Information technology makes the last act of the flick so much more interesting when it doesn't get through the motions of the cop thriller at all. I think thinking that "Oh what a nice modify of footstep to meet Nicholson play this character with a moral lawmaking" then you see how cavalierly he uses the niggling girl as bait and you come up to despise him. Jerry didn't become the memo that he wasn't supposed to be the hero. Information technology's a unique film. Nicholson is as ever masterful. The first has some slow areas simply it ends up being an alienating thriller that haunts the audience expecting a standard story of a hero cop getting his serial killer.
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"Do you swear on your soul'due south conservancy" that you will observe the killer??
Warning: Spoilers
Some spoilers... Nicholson's character, 6 hours from retirement as 1 of the the best constabulary detectives always, gets sucked into this case, the gruesome molestation, murder and dismemberment of a 7-yr-old girl in the wood, in the snowfall, and when the female parent asks, about not giving upwardly until the killer is institute, "Practise yous swear on your soul'due south salvation", he unwisely says "Yes"!! I could have lost interest at that point, because it was ridiculous for anyone to ask such a thing, and as ridiculous for a sane person to say 'yeah', but maybe they idea information technology was necessary for the rest of the flick to feel right.
So he devotes his life in retirement, telling a doubting cop, "Yous're old enough to think when a hope meant something." He studies the case, finds connections to others, discovers a drawing of "a giant", the "wizard" with a black car who was giving her chocolate porcupine candies, buys a local gas station for surveillance of all the people in the surface area, gets involved with a lady (Robin Wright Penn) and her niggling girl, using bad judgement uses the daughter as "bait", mom is rightly upset, the "sorcerer" never shows up for the coming together he arranged.
What is unique in this moving-picture show is that only u.s., the audition, and none of the characters, ever figure out what happened. Nicholson's character becomes a chain smoker, a drunkard, loses his relationships, his gas station fails, he is rapidly becoming crazy, all because he made this "pledge" that he tin never fulfill and he can never realize that.
The killer was Oliver, the husband of the Christmas Store lady, about the end was hunting in the store, saying, "Oliver, where did you put those candies. Oh, hither's some...", the chocolate porcupine candies. We see Oliver driving his automobile towards the meeting point, crossing the centerline, and dying in a blazing head-on crash with a large truck. All the cops in the stake-out, all the towns people, none of them e'er suspected that Oliver was the killer. The fire would have destroyed any testify, like the candies, that may accept tied him to the crimes.
It is interesting that nosotros never really see Oliver, except a hazy image through a window of the Christmas Store, or his fluffy grey hair from behind every bit he drives the car. There is no grapheme evolution for him, considering none is needed. The story is not almost him, it is about Nicholson's character and how a good intention (the "pledge") can ultimately, through a quirk of fate, destroy your life.
My wife and I both found this a very absorbing film, lots of opportunity to gauge, usually incorrectly, what would happen adjacent. Watching the film on DVD is a big help, every bit we were able to become back, after the end, to replay parts of key scenes to piece everything together. It is all there, if you listen and watch advisedly. Good movie, good job by Penn and Nicholson, I rate it "8" of 10.
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Inscrutable.
Warning: Spoilers
Jack Nicholson is a retired cop whose last minutes on the job are ruined past the discovery of the mutilated and raped body of a petty girl. A retarded Indian (Benicio del Toro) is picked up for the crime. Del Toro has a record of kid abuse and other offenses, some concrete evidence linking him to the girl is institute in the cab of his truck, an eyewitness places him at the scene of the killing, and under coaxing he confesses. Then he grabs a gun and shoots himself. The horrified Nicholson doesn't believe the confession and thinks Del Toro was innocent. He pledges to the dead girl's parents that he'll observe the killer.
Nicholson settles into an quondam café. Shortly a beautiful younger woman (Robin Wright Penn) and her daughter move in with him and they become a family. The problem is that Penn's girl is a beautiful eight-twelvemonth-old girl child who reminds Nicholson of the murder victim. He goes to such unusual lengths to protect her from the killer he believes to be still at large and operating in the vicinity that he alienates his friends on the constabulary and drives Penn and her daughter away.
He uses the daughter equally allurement to trap the rapist who, the motion picture suggests, was killed in a highway accident while hurrying to run across and harm the girl. Of course, no one realizes that the charred corpse in the called-for car is the rapist, and that Nicholson'southward anxiety was justified. The concluding scene has a half-mad, fainéant Nicholson sitting in the dust in front of his at present-dilapidated and ruined café, drunk, gesticulating wildly and talking to himself -- a lonely and tragic figure in the wind.
I was unable to figure out what all the fuss was nigh. I don't mind tragedies but they take to develop out of something, don't they? Nicholson promises to catch the killer/rapist. He does what he tin can, even at the adventure of his own family, and he appears to succeed, though he doesn't know it, and it costs him everything he has.
Where is his tragic flaw? His downfall, similar the auto blow that kills the rapist, seems entirely arbitrary. It doesn't flow out of anything that has preceded it. Okay, permit Nicholson fall, but requite us a reason for it, some hamartia -- Othello's jealousy or Caesar's appetite -- fifty-fifty on a pocket-sized scale. Simply what do we bear away from this film? Don't make promises you lot tin can't keep? Sometimes a motion picture tin can get away with this kind of diffuse narrative if it's handled stylishly. (I however accept to concentrate in order to effigy out the plot of "Chinatown.") Just this isn't handled with whatsoever kind of artistry. The director, Sean Penn, sets the story in and around Reno but we get no sense of place. Reno is a raffish, vulgar footling city. The surroundings, the Great Bowl Desert and the Sierra Nevada, are raw and purple. But, aside from a few shots of Nicholson fishing, we don't get much of an impression of it. I'grand not asking for pretty postcards, but some atmosphere.
Nicholson gives a performance that is wearisome and stiff or, let's say, thoughtful, but by and large he'due south Jake Gittes with a hangover. Robin Wright Penn is more animated, mayhap the liveliest person in the movie, and she'south just about the correct age. The little daughter is enchanting, like a painting of a beautiful child, and she seems like a natural actress. Other actors of annotation have pocket-sized roles that don't add much. But Benicio Del Toro is nifty as the barely interpretable Indian, his face mostly hidden past a voluminous witch-like growth of hair.
Penn seems to love close ups. In that location are a plenitude of close up. Not simply close ups of faces, merely shut ups of eyes and close ups of noses and close ups of ornaments dangling from rear-view mirrors. In that location's a close up of a claw being removed from a trout'due south oral fissure. Is "claustrophobia" supposed to be a THEME of some sort?
The motivations are weak as well. What is it that convinces Nicholson's cop that Del Toro is innocent? And why does Nicholson so stupidly swear on a domicile-fabricated cantankerous, "pledge your soul'southward salvation", that he will take hold of the killer? When Nicholson learns from the lilliputian girl that she has made a date with the "wizard" who gives her bon-bons, he lets her bicycle to the picnic site, then surrounds it with policemen, including a SWAT squad. At no fourth dimension is she in any danger. So why does this drive Robin Wright Penn into hysterics then that she beats Nicholson, clutches her wailing daughter, and leaves him apartment? Why doesn't she just heap her calumny upon him. Or make him take ANOTHER pledge on a dwelling-fabricated cross that he'll never practise it again.
The pic is sluggish and unenlightening. The story remains an interesting promise, unfulfilled.
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An Overpowering Obsession
Warning: Spoilers
This tragic story nigh an ex-cop who falls into the grip of an overpowering obsession is told in a way that'south riveting, powerful and thought-provoking. The atmosphere is consistently unsettling, the action is often disturbing and Hans Zimmer's wonderful score complements the mood of the piece perfectly. Its interesting set-upward is typical of a routine murder mystery merely soon it becomes clear that what'south to follow is going to be far less predictable. Additionally, a marvellous plot twist very late on in the film leaves each of the main characters with the wrong impression of what they've just experienced and for the ex-cop, this proves to be devastating.
During a retirement party for homicide detective (and reluctant retiree) Jerry Blackness (Jack Nicholson), Reno Law Department receives a report that the dead body of an 8-year-old daughter has been found in a snow-covered forest nearby. It transpires that young Ginny Larsen had been brutally murdered and sexually assaulted and that the youngster who discovered her body had seen a homo leaving the offense scene. Native American Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio Del Toro) is a known sex-offender who fits the clarification provided by the youngster and before long the mentally handicapped suspect is taken in for questioning.
Jerry'south aggressive colleague Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) interviews the profoundly confused suspect and elicits a confession but very presently after, Wadenah grabs a police officeholder's gun and kills himself. Krolak, Police Helm Eric Pollack (Sam Shepard) and all their colleagues immediately regard the example every bit closed but Jerry isn't convinced that Wadenah was the killer. When Jerry tells the victim'south parents the dreadful news most their girl, he'southward pressured past Ginny's female parent into promising to find the real killer. Having made this promise, he carries on with his investigation after his retirement and shortly discovers prove to back up a theory that Ginny's murder was i of a series in which the victims were young blonde girls who wore red dresses. When he shares his findings with Krolak and Pollack, they regard his theory as absurd and remember that he'due south become irrational.
Jerry goes line-fishing, buys a run down gas station and starts a relationship with a local waitress who has a immature daughter. His preoccupation with the theory that just he believes and his commitment to fulfilling the hope he fabricated, turn his investigation into an obsession so stiff that it drives him to do something terrible and eventually lose everything that he values, including his sanity.
Jack Nicholson's remarkable operation is subtle, sensitive and subdued and his ability to convey his grapheme's feelings so effectively is very impressive. "The Pledge" is a haunting movie with a supporting cast that includes a number of elevation class actors (due east.one thousand. Benicio Del Toro, Helen Mirren, Harry Dean Stanton, Mickey Rourke etc.) in a series of cameo roles which all get out an indelible impression and enrich the quality of the whole undertaking enormously.
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Unsung masterpiece
Warning: Spoilers
One of movie theatre's more idiocyncratic "series killer movies", Sean Penn's "The Pledge" stars Jack Nicholson equally a retired police detective who promises a distraught mother that he will apprehend the paedophile responsible for raping and killing her girl.
To reveal any more of the plot would be to spoil the fun. Suffice to say that much of the pic's touch on is derived from watching just how far Nicholson goes in his attempts to take hold of the killer. He becomes increasingly obsessive and insane, going to quite shocking lengths to capture his human.
Many have complained that sure events in the motion-picture show are implausible, just this is the very bespeak. The film is structured as the memories of an already insane Nicholson. Spotter how director Sean Penn uses fades (images fade onto the same epitome, slightly out of sync) to advise that Nicholson'south memory is out of sync with reality, that things don't quite add upwardly, that we are but watching i piece, one "version", of what really happened.
Lookout too how Penn has Nicholson express extreme sympathy for the mad drifter who appears at the get-go of the flick, how the word "crazy" flickers backside Nicholson during a parade and how, in true Lynchian manner, symbols and objects reappear in unlike contexts as though nosotros're trapped in a strange waking dream. Framed past shots of a drunken Nicholson alone and mumbling to himself, this is a madman's hazy recollection.
Interesting too is the manner Penn's style has evolved as a director. Since working with Terrence Malick on "The Thin Cherry-red Line", he's developed a much more ethereal aesthetic, his camera always restless, always moving and changing focus. This mode is replicated in Penn'south "Into The Wild", but information technology suits "The Pledge" best, conveying a strange blend of reality and mental instability.
Elsewhere the film eschews the usual clichés in favour for a more introspective take on the genre. The moving picture does fall prey, still, to the "creepy bald paedophile series killer" cliché. Why do film-makers acquaintance hair loss with sexual perversions? Information technology's well-nigh as though we subconsciously associate pilus with sexual maturation, and baldness in murderers to be a sign of creepy prepubescence.
8.nine/ten – A somewhat slap-up film. Sean Penn previously directed Jack Nicholson in "The Crossing Guard", a less interesting film about adults coping with the loss of a child. Worth 2 viewings.
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