Main Cast: Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Dale Dickey, Aaron Eckhart
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 124 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
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), understandably distraught, demands to know if the killer will be brought to justice, and Jerry promises her that he will personally see to it, "on my soul's salvation." A younger detective also on the case, Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart), thinks he's traced the crime to Toby Jay Wadeneh (Benicio Del Toro), a mentally retarded man who confesses to the murder shortly before killing himself. Stan considers the case closed, but Jerry can't shake his belief that Toby Jay wasn't actually the murderer, and Jerry begins to investigate the case on his own time, over the objections of his former boss, Eric Pollack (Sam Shepard), who reminds Jerry that he's no longer an official member of the police force. Before long, Jerry's personal investigation has taken over his life, and he uncovers evidence that suggests the girl's murder was just one in a series of killings involving young girls and a mysterious man called "the Wizard." When Jerry becomes close to a young single mother, Lori (Robin Wright-Penn), he feels he has reason to believe the murderer may be targeting her eight-year-old daughter, and finds himself using her as a decoy in order to bring the killer to justice. The Pledge marked Jack Nicholson's second starring role in a film directed by Sean Penn following 1995's The Crossing Guard; The Pledge's stellar supporting cast includes Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren, Harry Dean Stanton, and Mickey Rourke. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The second collaboration between star Jack Nicholson and director Sean Penn results in a quiet, absorbing character study of the psychological effects of obsession. Nicholson is the great lion of cinematic acting, America's answer to Britain's rapidly disappearing Shakespearean luminaries. Here he earns his mantle once again with one of his best and most subtle performances, as a man stripped of power and respect, desperately clinging to both as he convinces himself he's upholding a sacred oath. If only the long string of distracting celebrity cameos in The Pledge could have been scotched. As one after another great performer shows up in the second act to gratefully deliver a single, finely honed scene opposite the legendary star ("Look! It's Mickey Rourke! There's Helen Mirren!"), the film's energy dissipates. Fortunately, Penn brings the film back on track and the third act once again becomes a riveting examination of Nicholson's increasing psychosis; without so much wasted time, however, his degeneration could have been better explained and more gradually introduced. The film is not a total success and it's less visual than it could be (with the exception of a striking scene set in a turkey farmhouse), but like Penn's previous films The Indian Runner (1991) and The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge is pure cinema -- deep, meaningful, and about something. The film itself and the talents involved are so good that it doesn't really have to be perfect. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Helen Veronica Jarvis - Art Director, Brian Cook - Associate Producer, Helen Veronica Jarvis - Artistic Advisor, Don Phillips - Casting, Brian Cook - First Assistant Director, Sean Penn - Director, Jay Cassidy - Editor, Andrew Stevens - Executive Producer, Hans Zimmer - Composer (Music Score), Klaus Badelt - Composer (Music Score), Bill Groom - Production Designer, Chris Menges - Cinematographer, Sean Penn - Producer, Elie Samaha - Producer, Michael Fitzgerald - Producer, Lesley Bole - Set Designer, Rob Young - Sound/Sound Designer, Jerzy Kromolowski - Screenwriter, Mary Olson-Kromolowski - Screenwriter, John Nutt - Supervising Sound Editor, Lesley Bole - Set Decorator, Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Book Author
Jerry Black is a retired detective, who during his retirement party decides to join one of his colleagues in one last case. The case involves the molested body of an eight-year-old girl, found in the mountains of Nevada. After breaking the news to the girl's parents, Jerry makes a pledge to the distraught mother that he would find the killer. The "chief" suspect is a mentally challengedNative American who commits suicide during an interrogation.
Jerry doesn't believe that he is the killer, however, so he begins investigating. He learns that two similar incidents had occurred in the area. Mindful of the pledge he made, he buys an old gas station in the mountains, and searches for a tall man who calls himself the Wizard, using clues from a drawing done by the murdered girl. He is the only person to suspect that a serial killer is involved, and his obsession with finding the killer begins to erode his sanity as he strives to keep his promise.
It is revealed in the end that Jerry had become so obsessive that he himself killed little girls hoping the killer will come to him.
Critical response to The Pledge was generally favorable, but the film did not fare particularly well at the box office.[1][2] Its domestic receipts grossed approximately $19 million USD, with foreign receipts adding another $9 million, leaving the total well short of the film's budget, estimated at between $35 and $45 million.[3][4]
^ (2001, May 15). "US directors laud Cannes audiences", BBC News
"International critics praised The Pledge when it opened in the US in January, but its box-office takings were mediocre, despite an acclaimed performance by Nicholson."
