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Pledge, The
Warner Bros.


6.0

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jerzy Kromolowski Mary Olson-Kromolowski Friedrich Dürrenmatt (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Sean Penn
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 19, 2001 Theatrical: January 19, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	123 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Not a film for all tastes, but it's a considerable artistic achievement.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Penn and Nicholson take risks with the material and elevate the movie to another, unanticipated, haunting level.

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.

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.

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.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

If Penn really lets these actors sing, his watchful camera also knows how to respect their silences.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Not a pleasant film, but it is deeply, scarily rewarding.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi

Works best as a mood piece — the mood, however, is grim.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Sets off depth charges of the psyche.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Slate David Edelstein

Fitfully haunting and impressive: a little less loitery and opaque and it might have been a classic.

Film.com Robert Horton

Sometimes feels like an acting class gone berserk, with Penn indulging his high-powered cast

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's unspeakably morbid, and never adds up to be something special.

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.

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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A forced march toward certain disaster, a scenario only passionate believers in predestination are likely to savor.

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.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

A surprisingly uneven and perhaps even mediocre character drama.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 17 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?

Pledge, The Warner Bros.

Pledge, The
Warner Bros.