Saw this film on cable last night (only the last hr. or so) & it was extraordinary. Nicholson gives both a moving & harrowing performance as an old, hard-drinking, washed up police detective. Though his character is in the dregs, he still manages to compel our empathy. Not since "Ironweed" has he attempted a character so thoroughly seedy.
His relationship w. Robin WRight & Wright's daughter is affecting; and the plot developments around the child murderer stalking the daughter are riveting.
The film concludes in a downbeat way that only a director like Sean Penn would have been brave enough to attempt in this era of happy Hollywood endings. Though we as audience know that Nicholson was right 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 you watch Wright flay Nicholson for letting her daughter 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 situation: in order to keep faith w. 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 done. This is a profound moral dilemma.
Penn has created a masterful film, proving yet again that he is one of our better directors. "The Pledge" is one of which he can rightly feel proud.
His relationship w. Robin WRight & Wright's daughter is affecting; and the plot developments around the child murderer stalking the daughter are riveting.
The film concludes in a downbeat way that only a director like Sean Penn would have been brave enough to attempt in this era of happy Hollywood endings. Though we as audience know that Nicholson was right 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 you watch Wright flay Nicholson for letting her daughter 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 situation: in order to keep faith w. 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 done. This is a profound moral dilemma.
Penn has created a masterful film, proving yet again that he is one of our better directors. "The Pledge" is one of which he can rightly feel proud.