The Pledge Review

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Vincent Carlos
  • 4/5

Sean Penn's "The Pledge" begins when it seems his protagonist's career is ending. Jack Nicholson plays Jerry Black, a Nevada police detective whose retirement party is interrupted by news of the brutal murder of a young girl. Across the noisy room he senses a shift in tone, and joins a conversation between his chief and the man who will be taking over his job. Then he goes along to the murder scene, perhaps out of habit or because he hasn't officially retired.That determination is at the core of "The Pledge," which seems to follow the form of a police procedural and then plunges deeper into the mysteries of innocence, evil, and a man's need to validate himself. At some point we realize that retirement, for Jerry, is a form of defeat and death. When the girl's mother says, "There can't be such devils out there," look at his eyes as he tells her, "There are such devils." He has been working against them for his entire life, and now he must find this one to save himself.

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