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Best movie of this year hands down!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Absolutely Fantastic

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Jack Nicholson is in one sense a throwback to the old time studio system of actors in like stars such as Cary Grant or James Cagney he's so identifiable, impersonators have made whole careers of doing Nicholson. But the usual Nicholson is not really present here. Director Sean Penn kept the usual Nicholson shtick carefully in check in The Pledge, but did get a great performance out of him as a cop who just can't let the job go. Happens in many jobs when you are conscientious and care about what you do.On the eve of his retirement Nicholson who is at his retirement dinner goes out with the rest of the detectives and uniforms on a crime scene of a brutal rape murder of a child. A mentally challenged Benicio Del Toro is arrested and a confession is wormed out of him. But rather than go through the system DelToro steals a cop's gun and it's suicide by cop. Nicholson isn't satisfied and he thinks he has found a pattern of a serial killer. He also befriends Patricia Clarkson who has a little girl of the same type as the one this serial killer is supposed to like. Clarkson is a good soul who has had it rough and she and Nicholson start developing a relationship which under normal circumstances might go somewhere. But even in retirement Nicholson is a cop first and foremost. That fact kills any chances he'll have of happiness and completion.Sean Penn assembled a good cast that gives great performances, especially those I've mentioned. No Nicholson shtick here like you find in such classics as Chinatown and A Few Good Men, but a really good acting job.

I caught the second half of this flick and was engaged by its pace; it's well shot and enhanced by the soundtrack. Jack N is convincing and the rest do OK too, with some very (very, very) little cameos by such as Harry Dean Stanton and Micky Rourke. I saw the whole film a few days later and found I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it. Some of the characters seemed less credible and a bit cliché. The story plays out like a suspense thriller/whodunnit, which is not really my thing, but there's just about enough interest to keep one watching (and there's always Jack) and the film's merits just about counteract its shortcomings (which are mainly plot-related and the fact there are too many lazy coincidences to serve its progression). The ending is a tad disappointing, plot-wise, as it seems a bit of a cop out to me, although the very final scene offers some form of redemption by refocusing our attention on the character study that I guess is its main aim/strength.

On the night of his retirement and during his retirement do police chief Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) goes back out into the field to investigate the death of a young girl who was raped before being murdered. The police arrest Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio Del Toro) for the little girl's murder and manage to extract a confession from him - albeit in a rather unethical manner. Despite the fact that the police are content that Wadenah was the man who killed the little girl Black isn't convinced and acting on a hunch, he comes back out of retirement and carries out his own investigations to try to track down the person who he believes is really responsible for the killing.As far as stories go this really isn't a bad one and certainly has enough intrigue and mystery about it to keep one invested in the story. Parts of the story are a little predictable - as soon as we learn that Wadenah has mental health problems it becomes fairly obvious that they've got the wrong man and this leads to Wadenah being interrogated by the police in a section of the film which dragged on for too long. Sadly, the film also suffers from many other clichés that we'd expect to see in the genre; retiring cop on 'one last job', one cop believing that the man they've got for the crime is innocent when no-one else believes him. I also felt that more interesting aspects of the story weren't given enough focus; Black's inner voices are mentioned and referred to now and again, but aren't really ever a focal point in the film which made these sections of the film seem a bit pointless (his therapy session with Helen Mirren is perhaps a good 'case in point'.In the second half of the film Black buys a gas station and goes undercover to try to track down the killer and this section of the film is definitely one of the weaker aspects in the film. The pace is notably slower at this point and again seems to be filled with pointlessly long and drawn out scenes (such as about 5 minutes spent watching Jack Nicholson fishing for example). It all amounts to filler as far as I'm concerned and adds up to very little and just makes the film longer than it needs to be.The ending is also rather unsatisfying and teases the audience into believe that there is going to be some spectacular showdown between Black and the killer but alas this never happens. Instead it seemed to offer more of a moral debate on whether Black went too far by using a little girl as bait to catch the killer - suggesting that a 'red mist' has descended whereby he's willing to flush out the killer regardless of the consequences.... This is interesting as a social statement but I still felt cheated as the film seemed to be building up to an exciting finale and never really got there. I suspect this may work for those after something 'thought-provoking' but won't really work for those looking for a straight-forward 'good triumphing over evil' story.All in all this was fairly interesting and intriguing film and is reasonably good in most respects, but I really wish that the film had ended on a stronger note.

My favorite movie genre has to be gritty crime dramas, especially ones where a serial killer is in play. The pinnacle are the Hannibal Lector movies. The Pledge does not quite live up to that billing, but it is a solid crime drama with an impressive cast. Quite a few of the bit players have gone on to lead films of their own.A little research tells us that the original author wrote a TV movie and was forced to use a less believable, more happy ending. He then wrote a novella with a more realistic finale, which is where The Pledge is adapted from.I do not want to give too much away, I just want any user who stumbles across any of my reviews to get an accurate idea of what they are in for and if they should invest their time into watching this movie. The Pledge starts off how all crime fans like - a cop brought in to examine a brutal crime. However, the movie then settles in for a long, slow, almost meandering middle. There are no chases, violence or action as the story builds to its conclusion.This might turn off or disappoint viewers who expected more action. But I enjoyed the set up. Mainly because the Jack's acting is so good and I enjoyed the character. I have to admit some of his motivations were so subtly implied that I only realized them after researching the film afterwards.What elevated this to an 8/10 for me was the unconventional ending. Your first reaction is disappointment, even anger. You want just desserts for the scumbags of the world or redemption for the heroes of the world or a clear resolution to the world's problems. But as we all know, real life is not fair. The ending will stick with me for a long time, it will not fade like all the other crime drama endings we have seen. True crime fans, give the movie a view. It's worth the long ride.