Miles of Movies

                                                                                                       The Promise tells the story of Miguel (Oscar                                                                                                        Isaac), a young Armenian who travels to                                                                                                                      neighboring Turkey to study medicine in the year                                                                                                      1914. He has agreed to marry a rich young woman                                                                                                  in his hometown and is using the dowry money to                                                                                                    pay for his education. Unfortunately for him, he                                                                                                        soon becomes infatuated with Ana (Charlotte Le                                                                                                      Bon), an Armenian living in Turkey with her                                                                                                                boyfriend Christopher Myers (Christian Bale), an                                                                                                      American reporter. Things get very dire for all of                                                                                                      them, however, when Turkey begins to round up ethnic Armenians in what would become The Armenian Genocide.

         As you can probably tell from my lengthy summary, there are a lot of moving parts to this movie. Luckily, it’s never that confusing while you’re watching it. Could it be simplified? Sure, but it’s not terribly confusing. It’s poorly paced, but I’ll get to that later. First: the good. This film has many hard-hitting emotional moments as Miguel, the central character, goes through so much hardship during these events. The performances really sell the emotion too. Oscar Isaac is great as usual, as is Charlotte Le Bon. She is always able to bring warmth to her character. Christian Bale is fine in the film too but his role doesn’t ask for a lot of acting range and ultimately feels like it could have been played by anyone.

        Though this film is affecting and succeeds primarily in its narrative goals, I can’t help but feel like it could have been a lot better if it had been more focused and streamlined. Like I said earlier, it’s got a lot of moving parts and a lot of characters; sometimes it can be a little difficult to follow and exhausting. As it stands, The Promise is forced to rush through several important scenes towards the end of the film that really hurt its overall quality. And when I say important, I mean crucial to this film’s narrative. If the film had nailed this scene, it could have been really impactful. Since it was so rushed, I spent more time trying to figure out what exactly had happened than reacting to what had happened. This happened all over the film, which was disappointing.

         Overall, The Promise was powerful, but certainly not as powerful as it would have been if the story had a little more focus and a better pace. If this story was to be fully told, the film would need to add another thirty minutes. As it stands, the film is not quite at its potential. The performances are good, but the story feels cluttered.

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale

Writers: Terry George, Robin Swicord

Director: Terry George

Genres: Drama

Release date: April 21, 2017