Review of Pledge, The

Introduction

The Pledge stars Jack Nicolson as detective Detective Jerry Black, hours away from retirement when the body of a brutally murdered young girl is discovered. Black promises her parents that he will find the killer and his colleagues quickly arrested a suspect and obtain a confession. But for Black, things don`t add up and he soon uncovers similar unsolved crimes in the surrounding area and sets out to find the killer before he strikes again.

Video

The video is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of a high standard, displaying plenty of resolution and detail, with no evidence of film grain or dirt on the print. The picture is stable, and has plenty of contrast and doesn`t suffer from any compression problems.

Visually, the film is ranges from the very attractive to the downright disturbing - the exterior locations are beautiful and very well filmed providing a backdrop to the film that is very pleasing to the eye. However, the subject matter of the film is quite disturbing - the murder of young girls - and there are gruesome crime scenes and numerous unpleasant evidence photographs. None of these are over the top by any means, not reaching the horror of Se7en, but nonetheless are quite graphic.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is of a similar high standard to the video, although for long periods of the film the sound only emanates from the centre channel. This isn`t necessarily a problem, but if, like me, you use the power saving feature of you subwoofer, the long periods without the LFE channel had it going into power saver mode.

The full range of speakers are used when necessary, and the sound is very well reproduced during these scenes, with excellent use made of the soundstage.

The dialogue is always clear and understandable.

Features

The extras really are a disappointment with just the theatrical trailer and cast/crew highlights on offer - there`s not even a short behind-the-scenes featurette.

Conclusion

Director Sean Penn delivers a film that doesn`t follow the usual Hollywood conventions for crime thrillers, and as a result the film stands out above many of its peers. As a result of this approach, it is very difficult for me to discuss the plot in too much detail without giving anything away that would spoil your enjoyment of the film. However, what I can say is that despite starting out as an investigation into murders and a "find the bad guy" movie, it soon becomes apparent that the lengths that Black is prepared to go in order to get his man could have a huge personal cost as he becomes more and more paranoid.

Nicolson gives an excellent performance as Black and he is backed up by a strong supporting cast which includes Patricia Clarkson, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren and Mickey Rourke.

The video and sound are both good, but the lack of extras is very disappointing. Given this, I`m inclined to advise you to rent this one out rather than buy it.