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The second collaboration between star Jack Nicholson and director Sean Penn results in a quiet, absorbing character study of the psychological effects of obsession. Nicholson is the great lion of cinematic acting, America's answer to Britain's rapidly disappearing Shakespearean luminaries. Here he earns his mantle once again with one of his best and most subtle performances, as a man stripped of power and respect, desperately clinging to both as he convinces himself he's upholding a sacred oath. If only the long string of distracting celebrity cameos in The Pledge could have been scotched. As one after another great performer shows up in the second act to gratefully deliver a single, finely honed scene opposite the legendary star ("Look! It's Mickey Rourke! There's Helen Mirren!"), the film's energy dissipates. Fortunately, Penn brings the film back on track and the third act once again becomes a riveting examination of Nicholson's increasing psychosis; without so much wasted time, however, his degeneration could have been better explained and more gradually introduced. The film is not a total success and it's less visual than it could be (with the exception of a striking scene set in a turkey farmhouse), but like Penn's previous films The Indian Runner (1991) and The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge is pure cinema -- deep, meaningful, and about something. The film itself and the talents involved are so good that it doesn't really have to be perfect. Karl Williams, All Movie Guide