: The Pledge
Director: Sean Penn
This film has two key flaws: one, it’s a murder story without a resolution (extremely unsatisfying — the murderer isn’t caught), and two, the fairly ordinary plot is told at a snail’s pace. While Penn’s technically excellent (I liked a number of things he did, including an interesting camera move through the open skylight of a car), he seems to confuse a slow pace with depth: a glacier pan across a lake does not make a scene profound. Thus the film feels ponderous and heavy and several hours too long. That wouldn’t be horrible if the payoff was worth it, but it’s not: the tale is simply that of a retiring police detective who becomes involved in a case of the rape/murder of a little girl on his last day and can’t let go, continuing to investigate even after his retirement. Basically, this is a film that wants desperately to be deep, but ultimately isn’t as profound as an episode of Law and Order. Perhaps I’m just bitter because I put this in wanting an action film, but this isn’t worth your time. It’s a lot of potential wasted. Cut 50 minutes out of it and it might be a pretty good film.
Topic: [/movie] |
