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Sean Penn directed this 2001 film about a retired homicide detective (Jack Nicholson) who continues to investigate the sadistic murder of a young girl even though his former colleagues believe the case is solved and closed. He has sworn "on my soul" to solve the case to the girl's mother. He buys a mom and pop gas station in rural Nevada, the area where he believes the killer can be found. Soon a battered housewife (an unrecognizable Robin Penn Wright) and her young daugther come to live with him. Nicholson bonds and then falls in love with the two although still continuing his investigation. His use of the young girl as bait for the killer has tragic results and what started as a routine police procedural turns into something quite different. This is Penn's thirs directorial outing, his second with Nicholson. Needless to say, Nicholson is a different type of retiree than the one he plays in "About Schmidt". Highly redcommended.
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gruesome scenes, unnecessarily so from any reasonable perspective.
No directorial skill whatsoever is shown, and all humans are shown to be scum: Penn's vision of the human condition is depressing. He provides no "Sisyphus-ian" triumph of man over adversity. Instead, we are shown people that sink to the lowest point and keep digging.
Hell, he doesn't even give us the satisfaction of having the killer dealt with by Nicholson. Sorry, but this is a movie. You want a story this negative, read a newspaper or see a documentary.
Penn needs to realize the glass is half full, at least sometimes.
I mean, who could give a fuck about a character as lost as Nicholson?
Too bad, because Nicholson's performance, and Benicio del Toro's in a cameo, are excellent.
Not so the boy who finds the body at the beginning, not so Robin Wright Penn, not so her daughter, not so the shrink, not so the various people Nicholson interviews, not so Sam Shepard. The movie is about obsession and how it can ruin lives. There are many films which end tragically and this is one of them.
.. is a good example.
It upsets some people.
Yes a very bad film and a bad remake.( Had already been discussed here...)
"He provides no "Sisyphus-ian" triumph of man over adversity"
"Hell, he doesn't even give us the satisfaction of having the killer dealt with by Nicholson."Guess what? Sometimes the crime is not solved, much less dealt with in a satisfactory manner. The only place that most crimes are "solved" is in the land of Hollywood, or it's cousin, Fantasy Land. That is because most test audiences require a neat and tidy result, and Hollywood executives, ever aware of the return of the dollar, capitulate to the test audience. In other words, dumbing down the material. In real life, the overwhelming majority of crimes are not solved. Even violent crimes. Penn has the courage not to make a cookie cutter crime film.
This was also evident in his prior fil, The Crossing Guard. I liked The Pledge, but loved The Crossing Guard, again with Nicholson. The ending in the former film dealt with the death of Nicholson's daughter at the hands of a drunk driver. He spends his life consumed with retribution. It destroys his marriage. The retribution never comes. The end is one of the most tender, and unanticipated, resolutions I have ever seen.
Penn is not looking for retribution, revenge, or any of those other things. In the Pledge, I think he is looking at what makes the person tick, why is this guy obsessed, and then what does that person do when it is time for the rubber to hit the road. Why would this guy change his entire life to resolve this one crime? Does he feel something special for the victim? Is it because he has a file drawer of unsolved crimes, and his retirement allows him to stretche the rules a little? Is there anything he would not do to catch the killer? Use a little girl that he is clearly fond of? Those are not themes that most directors use as the center of their films, much less comment upon, particularly in crime films.
There certainly is violence. It is Rated "R". But I think that you may be seeing the trees instead of the forest. Rather than think about tidy endings, dire events, and depictions of violence, I thought about the themes above. That I cannot recall any other director making me think those things within the context of a film makes me think that at least Penn took a tried and true formula and placed some original material there.
formulas exist: since you cannot sit for a 72-hour spectacle, the director is forced to present a "finished" product in the space of a few hours.
Anyhow, you felt the character was worth knowing about, I didn't. He destroyed a relationship and his life for what? Penn is saying that it was for NOTHING. In other words, Nicholson's entire effort was absurd, pointless. He failed. The murderer "won."
Sorry, but that happens in "real life" enough. We want to see a guy triumph over adversity. You know, the old Oscar Wilde saying, "We're all lying in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars."
Penn is looking at the shit. Just cause it's depressing, nihilistic, and negative doesn't make it "art," avant-garde, or worthwhile.
Hardly. The murderer was killed in an auto accident.
crime(s)(unless you think Penn was suggesting divine punishment).
Besides, I don't remember exactly but was it unavoidable that this was the murderer...or was it just a "maybe?"
It is clear that it is him and that it is his car. That's the tragedy, that Nicholson was right and wasn't able to prove it (nor would he have been able to even if the mother didn't arrive to take the girl away). So after two failed marriages he throws away the love and family he had finally arrived at because of his obsession. As Clint Eastwood says in "The Bridges of Madison County", "Obsessions don't have reasons, that's why they're obsessions".
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I like The Crossing Guard better, but this is a very good film. I wonder why Penn does not direct more. He commented a few years ago that he was quitting acting, and would only direct.
Which would be a great loss if he did quit acting.
I enjoyed both films, as well as most of Penn's acting performances. I would like to see him lighten up a little-his comments toward Chris Rock at the Oscars were a little to much. It's supposed to be fun, isn't it?
And some years ago he publicly criticized Nicolas Cage for doing commercial films when Cage was going through the action period in his career. Rightly or wrongly, he says what he thinks. He certainly makes for a great interview. I know Charlie Rose loves to interview him.
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