The Pledge

Director Sean Penn and star Jack Nicholson must have been drawn to the complexity of the haunted ex-detective character at the center of The Pledge, because he's the only thing remotely uncommon in this largely conventional serial killer suspense flick. Jerry Black is a retiring homicide cop obsessed with finding the "real killer" in an officially closed child-murder case, who follows hunches on his own time because nobody in the precinct believes him, blah, blah, blah. Even with the added intensity of Nicholson's performance, the story is only interesting during the cop's struggle with his demons, which lead him to shack up with the mother of a girl he's sure will be the killer's next victim. Full of trite plot devices, coasting down a predictable straight-and-narrow path with only a few fresh sidetracks before sticking us with a decidedly un-Hollywood finale, The Pledge, co-staring Robin Wright Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Aaron Eckhart, is not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)