Une promesse

When Richard Madden gets hired as Alan Rickman's assistant, he gets more than just a job in the bargain. Taken under Alan's wing, and taken into his home, he meets and quickly develops an affection for Alan's wife, Rebecca Hall. Yes, Richard's very handsome, but Rebecca didn't have an unhappy home before she met him. She had a devoted husband, plenty of money, beautiful clothes, a large house, and a child. Why, then, did Alan ever think it was a good idea to have a handsome, capable young man move into his home and spend time with his wife?

I was a little disappointed in this movie. The sets and costumes were beautiful, and given what they had to work with, the actors turned in fine performances, but the script itself wasn't very captivating. There were parts that seemed so obvious a double meaning or secret twist must surely surface, and while much of the movie promised a different meaning to the title, the denouement was a bit of a letdown. Still, if you really like period pieces and stories of forbidden love, you might enjoy renting it.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. Much of this movie is filmed with a handheld camera, and the movement might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

It's a good movie. There's the desire and the betrayal in a certain way, but there's no action, no passion and it continues till the end of the film. It could have been better.

The only sensible character here was Richard Madden's character. The rest were weird to watch.

And why did the camera zoom in on the characters out of the blue?...

3 stars for the outfits really.

I watched "A Promise" by accident - totally unprepared, and not even knowing what I was about to watch. But the fact that I watched it to the end already says a lot, since the film is not your typical shoot-them-up-superhero type of entertainment.

A Promise is essentially a love story set in times just before the WWI. It moves at its own, unhurried pace, but gives us plenty to observe and enjoy. While thoughtful, it manages to create suspense and drama without ever becoming sappy or boring. The story is inspiring, and screenplay well written. Besides great photography, and great story, all the actors were marvelous.

It is rare for me to be impressed by a film a day after I watched it, but A Promise achieved exactly that. It is refined, honest and deep enough to keep one engaged and only the most jaded will be unimpressed. Maybe there was a thing or two I would've done differently, but even with those imperfections, it stands out as an enviable work of seventh art.

Obviously, if you were looking for Ironman 12, or Halloween 13, you came to the wrong place.

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.