Jack Nicholson in The Pledge
in front of the highway, perhaps his unsuspecting lure (an expectant child in a bright red dress), will draw out his nemesis. When a mysterious figure (Tom Noonan, of course, the shaky voiced, enigmatic monster from Manhunter) steps off the road to help the girl build a snowman (“Hey, I have an idea…would you like to hold my hat?”), Jerry Black may have found his man.
* * *
Or has he?
The Pledge doesn’t concern itself with dogged police work. The suspense lies in whether or not Black is deluding himself with this holy mission. Jack Nicholson’s performance keeps the cards close to his vest, playing the former detective as warm, eager to do good. He’s obsessed as a valiant White Knight, living inside the fat, unshaved, sloppy veneer of a sad Sancho Panza clown who drinks too much.
Jack doesn’t grin or raise his eyebrows. His eyes are buried into his head like husks. The smile here is a curious one, sometimes floppy and sad or, at other moments, genuinely pleased with the thought that he just might be happy for once in his miserable life. He has a woman (Wright Penn) who loves him, a daughter figure, a house and fishing boat. In the simple pleasures, he could find a home. Time to enjoy another cigarette.
If only the nagging desperation of his pathetic quest would go away - it can only lead to some absurd finale where his psychic foundations are shaken. Will he be able to pass his own test?
* * *
Think of Bruce Springsteen songs (which Penn has often employed in previous films) back when the Boss was first getting his act off the ground - ballads of truck stops, screen doors slamming shut, lonely working men thinking about when that next paycheck is due, sleeping on the dusty hood of their old Pontiac, the sun setting on their dreams down by the river, smoking a cigarette on the old porch.
Then consider the movies of John Cassavetes or Hal Ashby - movies from an earlier time back in the ‘70s when movies were willing to have flawed protagonists, faded John Steinbeck dreams, weary muscle and confusing sex. The arcs weren’t always clear. The endings didn’t always work out so peachy for our confused hero. Even the camera felt more scrappy and raw, zooming in or cutting away to catch glimpses of a larger world which surrounds these characters.
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