The Pledge

Adapted from a book by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Penn's cop thriller-cum-psycho-drama is ambitious but deeply flawed. Nicholson is mostly impressive as the cop whose retirement is effectively blown by the news of the horrendous killing of an eight-year-old girl. But Penn's occasionally flashy direction of a contrived, often clichéd script all too happy to toss in a shoal of red herrings progressively undermines his efforts as the story (literally) unravels. It's just about credible that the cop would stand by his promise to the dead girl's mother to solve the mystery, but by the time he encounters Del Toro's retarded redskin (dubious indeed) and Mirren's psychologist (who profiles the murderer and his probable future actions after looking at the child's painting!), we're deep into movie madness, and the rest is hokum. Chris Menges' camerawork, however, remains effective.