Une promesse

I watched this film and was anxious to see a period piece set in Germany pre WWI but it never quite got off the ground. There is no chemistry between the two lovers. The male lead is not somebody a wife would fall in love with even if he is there all the time. He had no personality. He does not make her laugh, is not all that great with the son and offers no sex appeal. Rickman offers the only acting spark. It would have been interesting to see more of what Germany was like leading up, during and after the defeat of the war. Would make for such wonderful material both in plot and theme. A feeble attempt was made to stir up the politico in a scene close to the end where there is an aggressive street demonstration with people wearing swastikas. The Nazi party did not come into existence at the time the film depicts (end of war 1918). The DAP which was the predecessor of the Nazi party came into being in 1919 but it was not known enough for a street demonstration in 1918 and not with Nazi swastikas. These are simple facts I found online. I would not have researched had there not been that street demonstration scene with swastikas. It was totally out of place for the rest of the film. There should have been more of these types of scenes as there were riots in Germany in 1916 because of shortages in fuel and food. The film totally missed the effects the war had on the German people. The kiss at the end was as passionless as the whole lifeless movie.

Perfect costuming and set decor. Alan Rickman is splendid and Rebecca Hall has won me over. But. The camera-work is negatively strange and distracting at times. The sudden zoom ins and (tragically trendy) shaky cam, not my cup of tea. I wish my remote control had a stabilizer button.

The novel was exceptional and the love story devastatingly sad, but the film had so little chemistry between Rebecca Hall and Richard Madden that I felt nothing. Really didn't care about them at all. Not one bit. Nada.

Alan Rickman was extraordinary as usual (and so weird watching this film knowing this was one of his last films), but even he couldn't save this movie.

I've always been a big fan of Patrice Leconte, especially Man on a Train, a film that had a quiet haunting beauty about it. If only he had been able to suffuse A Promise with that same emotional weight.

"A Promise" is a film that I had a very hard time enjoying. While it has some lovely cinematography and some amazingly pretty scenes of pre- World War One Germany, the story itself is amazingly sterile and bereft of energy.

When the story begins, Friedrich (Richard Madden) is an amazingly capable and efficient assistant. Over time, he becomes invaluable to the boss, Herr Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman) and is his trusted aid. So, when Hoffmeister becomes ill and cannot remain on the job, he invites Friedrick to come to his home and relay his instructions to the factory. So, each day Friedrich shuttles back and forth from work to the Hoffmeister home--where he slowly begins to notice the boss' wife, Lotte Hoffmeister (Rebecca Hall). She is significantly younger than her husband and over time, she and Friedrich become more and more friendly and eventually he becomes almost like a member of the family--taking the young son and his mother on various outings. So, it's not surprising that Friedrich develops feelings for her...and then her husband sends Friedrich to be the company's liaison in Mexico. What's to become of their relationship? And, more importantly, does the audience even care?!

As I sat and watched this film, several things struck me. The entire project was very, very lifeless. Throughout EVERYTHING, Friedrich and the boss' wife showed almost no energy and there was really almost no chemistry between them. They eventually SAID they loved each other but you wonder where this came from. As for him, you can tell he's obsessed as he spends his time sniffing where the Missus had been (THIS IS SO CREEPY). But with her, you really have no idea she reciprocates the feelings during so much of the movie because she is so incredibly restrained...too restrained. For the most part, the film is about repressed feelings and you almost never see them expressed. Had you LIKED the characters, this pain would have actually made the film quite intriguing. But, because it's very difficult to care about them, the film is so very, very dull. In essence, the film lacked romance--which is BAD because it's supposed to be a romance!

I should add to this that MUCH of the film occurs during WWI and the film barely even mentions it (like it's a minor inconvenience that gets in the way of their love) and you are left baffled at so much of the film. Most baffling is the pair FINALLY meet long after the war is over...and their conversation is stilted and ultra-bizarre. I call it a case of poorly written and difficult to believe dialog and you just have to hear it to believe it. Overall, other than the lovely costumes, sets, music and cinematography, I cannot find much about "A Promise" that would get me to recommend it.

By the way, the DVD for this film follows an annoying new trend. You cannot easily play the film but must slog through many promos for other films, as the MENU feature and SKIP buttons are disabled. You can use the FAST FORWARD keys but must hit them repeatedly to skip past each ad.

Maybe I'm being charitable here, but I felt the "lack of chemistry" between the leads that so many criticise here could have been intentional, a trope for repressed emotion or the etiquette of the time. Yes, there are some major flaws, some clunking (such as the keyboard-sniffing, rat capture and of course, the damp squib of an ending), but there's also a lot to enjoy, particularly if you are a Rickman fan. But yes, some more historical context would have been good, it feels like an afterthought, and perhaps a deeper examination of whether the affair was set up from the start by an impotent husband.