{"id":11645,"date":"2014-04-29T20:40:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T02:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/?p=11645"},"modified":"2025-02-15T07:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T14:54:10","slug":"great-expectations-a-review-of-the-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/great-expectations-a-review-of-the-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Expectations: A Review of \u201cThe Pledge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The-Pledge-movie-poster\"The Pledge<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Narrative Feature | 124 mins. | USA<\/p>\n

Director: Sean Penn Starring Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, & Patricia Clarkson.<\/p>\n

Why do we go to the movies? Adventure? Sometimes. Entertainment? Many times. Some of us even like some thought-provoking to go along with our popcorn, or at least a movie that stays in our heads after we leave the theatre.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Pledge,\u201d from director Sean Penn, we\u2019re dropped into the world of Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) who amidst a scene of bleak, dried-up desert landscape mutters to himself, \u201cYou said, you said\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Juxtaposed against this washed-up wasteland, we switch to an isolated ice-fishing shack where we\u2019re left wondering if details like a fish on a hook, time on a watch and the type of booze someone drinks are character minutiae or relevant facts that we need to keep track of.<\/p>\n

With the film\u2019s good use of metaphorical imagery, we realize Jerry thinks his best detective days are behind him. Or are they? Hours from retirement and desperate to be relevant, Jerry asks to be put on the case of eight-year-old Ginny Larson, who\u2019s found dead on a snow-packed hillside, even if it means working with cops who don\u2019t preserve the crime scene and take the lazy way out by seizing on the first available suspect.<\/p>\n

At the crime scene, it\u2019s not his case, but Jerry implores Det. Stan Klovak (Aaron Eckhart) to have Ginny\u2019s coat and dress buttons fingerprinted before they bag her tiny hands and cover her head, a look of horror forever frozen on her face. Are the buttons a pertinent clue?<\/p>\n

When first responders who know Ginny, the brutally raped second-grader, balk at notifying her parents, Jerry Black accepts the responsibility; he knows that he\u2019ll have to handle their grief and anger. After collapsing in agonizing sorrow, Ginny\u2019s mother (Patricia Clarkson) demands that Black pledge to find the murderer or risk his soul\u2019s salvation.<\/p>\n

After Det. Klovak extracts a murder confession from Toby Wadenah (phenomenally played by Benecio Del Toro), the only suspect, Toby grabs an officer\u2019s service weapon and commits suicide. Violent scene it is, but it\u2019s not gratuitous \u00e0 la Quentin Tarantino; it\u2019s gritty and real. Does it push Jerry Black over the edge? Anyone with a modicum of introspection would have known the mentally deficient Toby would confess to being the Loch Ness Monster if it would please the police. Jerry Black knew Toby didn\u2019t do it. Is it relevant that he flashes back on this scene?<\/p>\n

Looking for a thread of what happened the day little Ginny went missing, Jerry pays a visit to her grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave), who gave her piano lessons, let her eat sweets and would read to Ginny from Hans Christian Andersen: \u201cWhenever a good child dies, an angel of God comes down from heaven and takes the child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings and flies with her over all the places that she loved during her life. And the child carries a large handful of flowers up to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a rare moment of hope, the film\u2019s primary focus shifts away from finding Ginny\u2019s killer to emphasizing that Jerry is trying to make a life for himself with an abused mother (Robin Wright) and eight-year old Chrissie. We see that Jerry can be a good father; he reads to Chrissie and protects her from questionable religious types. However\u2014when he\u2019s reminded of his pledge\u2014we have to wonder, will he use Chrissie as bait to catch the killer?<\/p>\n

While Jack Nicholson is superb in the role of Jerry Black, the supporting characters are extraordinary. It\u2019s a testament to Penn\u2019s directorial abilities that he can attract actors of such caliber as ancillary cast.<\/p>\n

On some level, we have great expectations that all of the attention to detail – repeated use of eleven o\u2019clock time check; a fish off the hook; button fingerprints; flashbacks; yellow car on the street, etc. – while they are sometimes effective in supporting a theme of relevance, they are not plot clues. Yes, the details give the characters depth, but most of them don\u2019t seem to serve the plot as well as the theme.<\/p>\n

The plot is resolved, but there\u2019s a difference between a chronologically satisfying ending and emotionally satisfying conclusion. While Jerry as the protagonist has pledged to find the girl\u2019s killer, his internal need is to stay relevant; his deepest need is to prove it to himself. The dual emotional stories dilute each other. Finding the girl\u2019s killer is the stronger story and the audience expects it to be resolved; it is, but if you\u2019re not paying close attention at the end of the film, you might miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pledge Narrative Feature | 124 mins. | USA Director: Sean Penn Starring Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, & Patricia Clarkson. Why do we go to the movies? Adventure? Sometimes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"festival_year":[],"class_list":["post-11645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11645"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19440,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11645\/revisions\/19440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11645"},{"taxonomy":"festival_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/festival_year?post=11645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}