Just finished "The Pledge." I hate it when a movie has won my heart before it starts, and then gradually, well, you know.
This movie has more than everything going for it. Stars Jack Nicholson. Sean Penn directed it. Wow, I didn't realize (I'm checking IMDB) that it was a 2001 release.
The "also starring" cast includes Patricia Clarkson (a favorite), Hellne Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, and Harry Dean Stanton, for cryin' out loud.
It's a suspense movie about a retired cop who has promised a young girl's parents that he will find their daughter's killer.
The movie has an ending that's original without being a classic "twist" -- but along the way it uses every film cliche you've ever seen, right down to the brass band in the Main Street parade and driving a 4wd vehicle through a cattle fence in an effort to save a little girl.
Not a ton of violence (compared to what I hear is out there) but far too many pictures of dead little girls, and one death scene that would have been at least as effective off-camera. (I know, because I turned my head.)
The "cast of starts" play vignettes of a few lines only - still it was nice to see HDS again; it's time to run a Harry Dean Stanton film festival at my house. But that means I have to sit through all of "Paris, Texas" again. Maybe I'll like it this time.
BUT - the first disc of "Wallender" arrived in the mail so I'm off to Swedish(?) mystery land with a bleary-eyed Kenneth Brannagh.
