DETECTIVE JERRY BLACK HAS MADE A PROMISE HE CAN’T BREAK, TO CATCH A KILLER HE CAN’T FIND.Ā
When Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson), a cop in Nevada who’s about to retire, ends up being the one who tells a family that their eight-year-old girl has been murdered, he swears on āthe salvation of his soulā to catch the culprit. Sean Penn’s third film as a director reunites him with Nicholson from The Crossing Guard (1995), which was another story about a man falling apart. The star makes the most of his character, going from likeable to obsessive and cold-hearted… but he never goes overboard. Mickey Rourke and the director’s then-wife, Robin Wright Penn, are also worth a look in this low-key, disturbing and tense film where a heart full of love is overtaken.
2001-U.S. 124 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced byĀ Sean Penn, Michael Fitzgerald, Elie Samaha. Directed byĀ Sean Penn.Ā Screenplay: Jerzy Kromolowski, Mary Olson-Kromolowski. Novel: Friedrich DĆ¼rrenmatt. Cast: Jack Nicholson (Jerry Black), Robin Wright Penn (Lori), Benicio Del Toro (Toby Wadenah), Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Noonan, Patricia Clarksonā¦ Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton.
Trivia: The novel has been filmed several times before, in Germany as It Happened in Broad Daylight (1958) and as a 1997 TV movie, and in Britain as The Cold Light of Day (1995).
Last word:Ā “It’s a very different kind of movie than my first two. I think everybody considers it much more accessible. It’s really a retirement-crisis story disguised as a thriller. I didn’t get the retirement-crisis story financed, if you know what I mean. But I got it shot.” (Penn, Cinema.com)
