The Pledge Reviews

I saw this when it was first released in the theatres and I've since watched it numerous times on TV but, even though I know it's based on a crime novel (Sight and Sound), the beginning and ending scenes still leave you wondering: did Jerry Black, failing to catch his last killer, retire into the life of a doddering drunk who is fantasizing about the movie's events, or was he numbing the pain of losing his idyllic small-town life by using his girlfriend's daughter as bait to catch the serial killer?

I already watched this movie but since it was ages ago and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. I have noticed that Sean Penn never got much credit for his directing career but, even though he might not be a great master, I always found his work really intriguing. However, to be honest, I have to admit that this movie didn’t really impress the first time I watched it. Indeed, at the time, I guess I thought it was actually too similar to ’The Crossing Guard’, Sean Penn's previous directing effort. Indeed, it was also starring Jack Nicholson in the lead part and it was again about a man who was looking for a child killer. Apparently, not everyone agreed and the late Roger Ebert preferred this one. Well, I'm glad I gave it a second chance because, even if it is still nothing really mind-blowing, it is after all actually a solid dark and grimmy thriller with some really solid performances by a very nice cast (Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Tom Noonan, Robin Wright, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton). The tricky thing with this movie is that Jerry Black is that not really a likeable character and, to make things worse, from the very beginning, he keeps making the wrong decisions. At the end, the question, in my opinion, is not if did he did almost catch the bad guy or not but why on Earth did he use this little girl who saw him as a father as bait? Eventually, 6 long years later, Sean Penn would come up with ‘Into the Wild’ which would be critically acclaimed and easily his best directing effort sor far. Anyway, to conclude, even though if it might not be the strongest movie directed by Sean Penn, I still think it was a decent thriller and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.