The Pledge review

The Pledge is only the third film directed by Sean Penn and the first since 1995's The Crossing Guard. Yet, even in his small body of work, he has shown an affinity for patient and personal tales of loners, people who pursue their own agendas, often in the face of ridicule and scepticism. Penn's bleak films are a million miles away from the often lightweight and conventional Hollywood fare he established his name with as an actor. The Pledge is an absorbing, if at times unhurried, examination of one man's obsession with the pursuit of a child murderer and although there is much to praise, there is also a sense that Penn is more interested in distancing himself from his commercial roots and establishing himself as a serious director than engaging his audience.

The film begins in a snow-covered region of Nevada with the discovery of the body of an 8-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. On the same evening Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson), the local policeman, is retiring. Reluctant to face obsolescence, he departs his own farewell party for the crime site, even though his authority has passed on to the understanding but resolute Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart).

An eye-witness' description leads them to a disturbed native American, Toby Jay Wadenah (Del Toro), whose confession would appear to end matters, except that Black's wily instincts convince him otherwise. Despite Krolak's insistence the case is closed, Black is determined to find evidence to back up his theory that the child's murderer remains at large. His search takes him to a small town where he meets up with the emotionally battered Lori (Wright Penn) and her young daughter.

It's hard to reconcile the familiar vision of Nicholson with the aging, overweight and morose Black and clearly testimony to Nicholson's trust in Penn, for whom in also starred in The Crossing Guard, that he chose The Pledge to make his long awaited screen return following his Oscar winning turn in As Good As It Gets. He abandons all vestiges of the self-assured bravado he's come to epitomise, scaling back so much that by the end Black's crumbling persona all but disappears.

Based on Swiss writer Friederich Durrenmatt's 1958 novel, The Pledge is Penn's first time directing someone else's words with Jerzy and Mary Olson Kromolowski doing the screenplay adaptation. Determining what to include and what to omit from the book is key and while The Pledge offers some tense moments, they are distanced by long periods of ponderous reflection and artful indulgence. At the heart is a moving study of a man trying to find meaning and purpose in his life allied to a psychological thriller and although it contains many of the ingredients necessary for compelling cinema, somehow Penn's continued indictment of the human condition and belligerent stance against hope make his vision of the world difficult to embrace.

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