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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Pledge, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Jerzy Kromolowski
Mary Olson-Kromolowski
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (book)
Directed by: Sean Penn
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 19, 2001
DVD: June 19, 2001
Running Time: 123 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence and language
Starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Aaron Eckhart, Benicio Del Toro, Helen Mirren, Sam Shepard, Vanessa Redgrave, Patricia Clarkson, and Mickey Rourke
Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson stars as Jerry Black, a Nevada homicide detective who volunteers for one final investigation on the eve of his retirement. He offers his expertise at a compromised crime scene and ends up making a promise to the young victim's mother that will change his life forever. (Warner Brothers)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Into the Wild The Crossing Guard
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
One of the most aggressively ambiguous pictures of the year. There is a certain power to that.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Not a film for all tastes, but it's a considerable artistic achievement.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Penn and Nicholson take risks with the material and elevate the movie to another, unanticipated, haunting level.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Why on earth didn't Warner Bros. release this movie in time for Oscar consideration? Sure, it's bleak, depressing, sometimes painful to watch. But it would have been one of the best pictures of the year, and Nicholson (who hasn't done work of this caliber since "The Crossing Guard") might have been on the podium again.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
In its dark, relentless, devastatingly ironic way, The Pledge is an exhilarating movie, partly because it isn't afraid to be genuinely challenging.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Nicholson is outstanding as he gradually but tellingly sketches in aspects of a man driven by a mission that outstrips his instincts as a professional lawman.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
If Penn really lets these actors sing, his watchful camera also knows how to respect their silences.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Not a pleasant film, but it is deeply, scarily rewarding.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
It's not hard to see why actors love working with Penn, even in the smallest roles; he lets them speak monologues even when they're saying nothing at all.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
In crafting a fierce, fragmented, downbeat film about a character who makes the wrong decision as a man by being right as a cop, Penn flies in the face of what sells in Hollywood. Godspeed.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
Penn's own gifts as an actor seem, in turn, to bring out the best in Nicholson, as well as the rest of the cast.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
It is understatement to say that Nicholson does some of the finest work of his career here, easily equaling "The Shining" for gargoyle monstrousness and "As Good as It Gets" for tortured humanism.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The movie wouldn't be imaginable without its commanding star. Nicholson is in virtually every scene underplaying to great effect
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Jack Nicholson in a performance that ranks among his best, yet leaves you feeling unfulfilled as never before.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi
Works best as a mood piece — the mood, however, is grim.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Penn is a true talent, but there's just enough languid pretension to The Pledge to make you wonder if he's ultimately more interested in parading his promise as a director than in fulfilling it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A rare thriller - and a rare American film - that centers on both dramatic and moral issues, crises of conscience. And thanks to a superb central performance by Nicholson as detective Black, it's a film that compels, thrills and ends up coming very close to tragedy.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The acting is excellent and Penn reconfirms his remarkable talent for muted, understated filmmaking that focuses on character and dialogue rather than spectacle and sensationalism.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Nicholson is terrific here, in a role that demands he act, rather than just be Jack.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
A nervy as well as somber piece of work, not only for the way it confounds and even frustrates certain genre expectations, but also -- and especially -- for the way it confronts the viewer with the moral implications of that frustration.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Though at times it threatens to meander off, Penn's movie fulfills its destiny as an alienated fable of justice and luck, personified by Jack in the twilight of his iconicity, babbling to himself at the crossroads of nowhere.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Short on action but heavy on ambiance, and the cumulative effect packs a whopper if you're willing to stop and think about it. Penn, never one to opt for action over thought, clearly expects that his audience will.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Fitfully haunting and impressive: a little less loitery and opaque and it might have been a classic.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
Sometimes feels like an acting class gone berserk, with Penn indulging his high-powered cast
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's unspeakably morbid, and never adds up to be something special.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin
Luckily, Penn's attentive directing and Nicholson's layered acting render The Pledge's occasionally questionable story permutations secondary to enjoying this emotionally powerful film of rare and grave subtlety.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The solemn, morose tone of The Pledge also guarantees a quick box office death: This is essentially a movie about bad things happening to good people, and if you have any interest in seeing this beautifully made bummer, don't wait too long.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Cares not a whit for such arbitrary concepts as justice, crime or punishment. It understands the relativism of right and wrong and takes a kind of perverse pleasure in reminding us that there are some things we'll never know.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A forced march toward certain disaster, a scenario only passionate believers in predestination are likely to savor.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The problem isn't a lack of substance, and certainly not a dearth of talent, but a shortage of fun.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
A surprisingly uneven and perhaps even mediocre character drama.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
Just a bad movie, with more bits of good acting and flashes of director's invention than you get in most bad movies.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a 6:
Starts off taking us into unexplored territory, but then wanders off into its own authenticity.
Aaron S. gave it a 5:
Was going great until the heinous ending, which totally "f"-ed up an otherwise brilliant picture. Terrific acting.
Fernando gave it an 8:
Good movie. Well directed, great preformance from Our Jack. Hi chance you'll hate it tho cos it's so damn slow. Snails on valium crawling through treacle move faster. But this doesn't make it a bad movie, just one with negligible mass appeal. You are not the yardstick. You are not definitive You are one person among six billion. Taste is relative; quality is absolute. Remember that.
John W. gave it a 3:
Too slowly paced; disturbing on any number of levels; an endless cycle of disassociated "suspense-building" scenes which, like clockwork, culminate either in exactly what you expect or exactly what you don't expect. At the end you're just guessing "heads or tails" as to what will happen, with the outcomes incapable of being predicted but instead left merely to the whim of the directing/writing crew. Good acting, sure, but that's about it.
AJ M. gave it a 10:
The Pledge is with out a doubt one of Nicholson's finest....This film will bring great recognition to Penn's directorial talents....A must see!!!!!
Dennis M. gave it a 6:
Long. Liked the ending.
Fried O. gave it an 8:
Clearly not a film that the average couch-potato will understand. Touches upon the deeply spiritual questions of self-trust, duty, love, and "what evil lurks in the heart of mankind." Beautifully filmed and acted. What more can you ask for?
