The Pledge (2001)

I'm quite impressed with Sean Penn's recent productions. They are quite poetic and try to expose souls rather than attempting to answer life's questions.

Jack Nicholson plays a retiring detective who finds himself promising a woman that he will search out the murderer of a young girl. The pledge he makes is against his own soul's salvation - so, a bit of pressure really. He moves into the area in Nevada and fishes, befriends a local woman and her daughter and continues his investigation. I won't give away the ending.

This project is quite star studded. Many of the actors are dressed up to look like the underbelly of American society - the people who are on the cover of "People Magazine" are playing people who would never make it to the cover of "People Magazine."

We are faced with an internal conflict that depicts how we deal with unreachable goals. The limits we face as mortals and are harnessed with by our co-workers, family, society also teach us that we are weak and can't really achieve all that we would like. These same limits can also strengthen our resolve. It's up to us to decide which goals we resolve to achieve or give up.

I was particularly touched at how this man who wants to do good ultimately loses his soul and had lost his soul through two broken marriages. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but where would we be without good intentions?

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