Even though nothing about this film stuck out to me as great, it was still a solid film that I enjoyed very much. Igor, Roger, and Assita made for a memorable trio of characters who carried the movie really well. As others have noted, Roger borders on being a villain from beginning to end. In the second half, he obviously causes problems, but his behavior is spotty even before that as well. There are several scenes throughout the film where he shows abuse, creepiness, and love towards Igor. For instance, after he beats his son for giving away a lot of money to someone else, he laughs it off and tells his son he loves him, jokes about him getting laid, and brings him to a bar where an older woman flirts with him. The impression you get is that, while he isn't a bad person per se, some of his parenting choices are questionable and he might not be the best choice of a guardian for Igor. He doesn't quite cross the line into awfulness though. Assita is also memorable as she shows a certain level of distrust towards Igor throughout most of the film. She threatens him with a knife, tries to get rid of him at a couple points, and frequently asks Igor if he's hiding anything from her. It's clear she has experienced a lot of abuse/betrayal from those around her and, as a result, finds it hard to place her full trust in anyone. As for Igor, he may seem somewhat one dimensional on the surface, but a few things can be said about his character as well. He doesn't go to school, struggles to maintain a job due to the demands of being a human smuggler, and doesn't seem to have a future outside of taking over his father's profession. In terms of his personality, he seems somewhat blank in contrast to the other two characters, but I think he acts as a cypher for the audience. Since he's one of the only people in the film who help Assita, he's the one you may relate to the most. I also enjoyed how his morals weren't of a black and white level of nobility as, while he has good intentions, the details he hides from Assita throughout the film make his process of carrying out his goal questionable. Outside of these three characters, I don't know that there's a whole lot else for me to dig at, but there were a couple small takeaways here and there I enjoyed. Illegal immigration is a big political issue and it would've been easy for the film to feel preachy at convincing you to support one side or the other. However, I appreciated that it didn't get into the political arguments of either side and simply showed you their plight and their day-to-day activities as this was more than enough to invest me into the film. Aside from this, however, the three characters I discussed up above were my main selling points for this film. They were, of course, very well-realized and the payoffs to their arcs were good enough so that I wasn't left thinking the film was missing something. So yeah, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has a few things on its mind and does a lot with them.
Review of The Promise
