Don't get me wrong, this film was interesting, but Sean Penn's pacing is just soooooooo darn slow! And well, the ending is just plain depressing. Watch at your peril.

I caught the second half of this flick and was engaged by its pace; it's well shot and enhanced by the soundtrack. Jack N is convincing and the rest do OK too, with some very (very, very) little cameos by such as Harry Dean Stanton and Micky Rourke. I saw the whole film a few days later and found I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it. Some of the characters seemed less credible and a bit cliché. The story plays out like a suspense thriller/whodunnit, which is not really my thing, but there's just about enough interest to keep one watching (and there's always Jack) and the film's merits just about counteract its shortcomings (which are mainly plot-related and the fact there are too many lazy coincidences to serve its progression). The ending is a tad disappointing, plot-wise, as it seems a bit of a cop out to me, although the very final scene offers some form of redemption by refocusing our attention on the character study that I guess is its main aim/strength.

How does a fine actor direct a film where he elicits unforgettable performances from ten, or so, of the best actors alive on the planet in service of a compelling story, yet end up with a 5 star film? Start with a decent script in crying need of a final rewrite; proceed with cinematography that rolls from redundantly hyper-dramatic to b-roll mediocrity of a bad travelogue, then edit the film with disrespect for the pace that the characters are driving the action.If you like great acting you'll love this film; if you love great films, you'll hate it. I loved and hated "The Pledge." It a disaster of spectacular potential. 5/10

On the night of his retirement and during his retirement do police chief Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) goes back out into the field to investigate the death of a young girl who was raped before being murdered. The police arrest Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio Del Toro) for the little girl's murder and manage to extract a confession from him - albeit in a rather unethical manner. Despite the fact that the police are content that Wadenah was the man who killed the little girl Black isn't convinced and acting on a hunch, he comes back out of retirement and carries out his own investigations to try to track down the person who he believes is really responsible for the killing.As far as stories go this really isn't a bad one and certainly has enough intrigue and mystery about it to keep one invested in the story. Parts of the story are a little predictable - as soon as we learn that Wadenah has mental health problems it becomes fairly obvious that they've got the wrong man and this leads to Wadenah being interrogated by the police in a section of the film which dragged on for too long. Sadly, the film also suffers from many other clichés that we'd expect to see in the genre; retiring cop on 'one last job', one cop believing that the man they've got for the crime is innocent when no-one else believes him. I also felt that more interesting aspects of the story weren't given enough focus; Black's inner voices are mentioned and referred to now and again, but aren't really ever a focal point in the film which made these sections of the film seem a bit pointless (his therapy session with Helen Mirren is perhaps a good 'case in point'.In the second half of the film Black buys a gas station and goes undercover to try to track down the killer and this section of the film is definitely one of the weaker aspects in the film. The pace is notably slower at this point and again seems to be filled with pointlessly long and drawn out scenes (such as about 5 minutes spent watching Jack Nicholson fishing for example). It all amounts to filler as far as I'm concerned and adds up to very little and just makes the film longer than it needs to be.The ending is also rather unsatisfying and teases the audience into believe that there is going to be some spectacular showdown between Black and the killer but alas this never happens. Instead it seemed to offer more of a moral debate on whether Black went too far by using a little girl as bait to catch the killer - suggesting that a 'red mist' has descended whereby he's willing to flush out the killer regardless of the consequences.... This is interesting as a social statement but I still felt cheated as the film seemed to be building up to an exciting finale and never really got there. I suspect this may work for those after something 'thought-provoking' but won't really work for those looking for a straight-forward 'good triumphing over evil' story.All in all this was fairly interesting and intriguing film and is reasonably good in most respects, but I really wish that the film had ended on a stronger note.