Like Frank Darabont has cornered the unique market of Stephen King-written period prison films (The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption), Sean Penn is making a name for himself by directing films that star Jack Nicholson and use the death of a young girl as the story’s catalyst.  The two, along with Penn’s wife Robin Wright, made a pretty decent but largely unseen 1995 film called The Crossing Guard, in which Nicholson plays the vengeful father of a girl killed by a drunk driver.

The Pledge pits Nicholson (As Good as it Gets), playing a retiring Reno cop named Jerry Black, against a serial killer who rapes and murders little blonde girls with red dresses.  The most recent slaying interrupts Jerry’s retirement party, but the dedicated detective chooses to can his celebration and investigate the crime scene.  After promising the girl’s mother (The Green Mile’s Patricia Clarkson) that he would find the person responsible for the murder, the police get a quick confession from a retarded mountain man (Benicio del Toro, who mumbles a la Fenster from The Usual Suspects and sounds a bit like Yoda).

Jerry, like any other screen dick worth his weight in donuts, doesn’t believe they got the right guy, but his boss (Sam Shepard, All the Pretty Horses) and arrogant young partner (Aaron Eckhart, Erin Brockovich) think Jerry is just reluctant to let go of his last case. Blowing off his retirement party present of a fishing trip to Cabo San Lucas, he begins a rogue investigation into the brutal murder.  Like del Toro’s quick appearance and exit, there are a handful of great one-scene appearances from numerous acting giants like Helen Mirren (Teaching Mrs. Tingle), Vanessa Redgrave (Girl Interrupted), Harry Dean Stanton (The Green Mile) and Mickey Rourke (Get Carter…okay, maybe he’s not an acting giant).

The Pledge kind of shifts gears when Jerry buys a tiny gas station in the area where the murders took place.  He also befriends single mom Lori (Wright Penn, Unbreakable) and her young, blonde daughter, eventually inviting them to live with him in the home above his gas station.  It becomes clear that he is using Lori’s daughter as bait for the killer, providing his Jerry with one of the best character flaws in recent memory.  He clearly will stop at nothing to catch the suspect, and you can tell the pursuit has completely taken over every aspect of Jerry’s life.  There’s a scene where Jerry reads fairy tales to the girl as they lay in bed, giving a whole new frightening dimension to the Brothers Grimm and raising questions about the identity of the killer for the more imaginative viewer.

Fans of non-stop action will probably start groaning during the film’s middle portion, which is full of what may seem like a whole lot of superfluous stuff.  But this isn’t an action film.  It’s something that makes conventional audiences shudder:  a character study – something we don’t get to see much of nowadays in a major release.  And it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to find it in a film directed by an actor.  Penn wrote his previous two directorial efforts but The Pledge was based on Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s book (adapted by Jerzy and Mary Olson-Kromolowski), leaving Penn to focus his talent solely on the film’s direction, and the result is startling.  It’s easily Penn’s best behind-the-camera work yet, as well as a considerable improvement over The Crossing Guard.

 This is also the best Nicholson has been in several years.  He is extremely believable as a man unhinged by both a savage crime and his own futility.  The Pledge also marks the third major release in the first three weeks of 2001 to feature Traffic’s del Toro (making ’01 the Year of the Bull), and one of two due in theatres this week where the actor is unrecognizable and doesn’t last too long (the other is Snatch).  In addition to a handsome score from Gladiator’s Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, The Pledge is also beautifully photographed by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Mission, The Killing Fields).

2:03 –

for adult language, light sexual content and some pretty graphic crime scene photos