The Pledge [2001] [DVD]

On the day of his retirement, Reno homicide cop Jack Nicholson investigates the brutal small-town murder of an eight-year-old girl and promises the distraught mother that he will find the killer. Seen fleeing the scene, retarded Indian Benicio Del Toro is apprehended the next day and confesses under duress before killing himself in custody. It doesn’t sit right with Nicholson, who delves into similar crimes unsolved in Nevada. Finding a link with two other cases, Nicholson baits a trap for a killer who might still be out there waiting to prey on young victims. Friedrich Durrenmatt’s story It Happened in Broad Daylight has been filmed before as The Cold Light of Day, a 1995 Dutch film starring Richard E. Grant and set anonymously in eastern Europe. Sean Penn places his version precisely in the harsh landscape of the American West, the small town’s clapboard buildings puny and inadequate in the shadow of the snow-peaked Sierras. Durrenmatt’s schematic crime drama thus becomes more metaphysical character study than psycho-thriller, and in Nicholson’s admirably restrained performance the obsessive detective is a noble melancholy loner, fascinating and deeply flawed. Good intentions, it seems, are sometimes not enough and Nicholson’s sad character loses the plot. Penn calls his version The Pledge, but it could as well have been called The Secret. Nicholson unwisely keeps his counsel and it has devastating consequences for him as well as the mother, daughter and suspect. The only ones he tells the truth are his former colleagues on the force, and they don’t believe him. The casting throughout is canny: Penn not only makes shrewdly judged use of the saturnine Del Toro’s feral features but also puts Tom Noonan in a pivotal role. The softly spoken, apparently benign Noonan, of course, carries the imprint of his creepy depiction of Tooth Fairy serial-killer Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter, Michael Mann’s masterful version of the Thomas Harris novel, Red Dragon. In tone and bleak visual grandeur, Penn’s picture resembles Paul Schrader’s unforgiving film Affliction, and – as Nicholson rails in the wind against the random injustice of it all – it leaves a similarly haunting impression.

This is a really excellent film with some very apt and atmospheric music.Jack Nicholson gives an outstanding performance as Jerry Black, a retired Nevada police detective who has given a pledge to a mother, that he will find the killer of her little girl.This is one of these films that keeps you on the edge of your seat.An unpredictable ending but the killer gets his just desserts and will not kill again.Great entertainment and the third film that was directed by Sean Penn.Sean Penn's fourth film was ' Into The Wild ' - another terrific film.Very Highly Recommended film.

I'd never heard of this movie but I took a chance . Totally engrossing story of a retired policeman trying to solve just one more case, at any cost . Good Nicholson performance.

Story of a retired detective keeping a promise to murder victim's mother to find her daughter's killer.Along the way he (Jack Nicholson) meets a young woman with a daughter of a similar age to the dead girl. When he buys a gas station they move in with him and he becomes ultra-protective towards the child but in an error of judgement he uses her as bait to trap his key suspect but his plan goes badly awry.Claustrophobic thriller with low-key atmosphere but, as ever, Jack doesn't disappoint in delivering a compelling performance.

i like this type of film but was a bit frustrated at the ending im stll trying to figure out who the killer was can anyone help?

Wanted to see.....great!

In a few words …………… Simply Brilliant, Sean Penn masterpiece. Moving and tragic in equal measure. With an add mix of frustration. And an ending to leave one thinking.

A great DVD I would have happily paid money to see in the cinema, 5* acting from Jack Nicholson. Unexpected ending which I love, i hate predictable stories