Director / Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA, RESERVATION ROAD)
Stars/ Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale and Shohreh Aghdashloo

One promise that is made and will be kept by THE PROMISE is its goodwill. This historical drama has been produced for a single purpose – to educate its audience of one of the greatest and least known catastrophes of the 20th century. Any doubt surrounding its genuine intentions can be erased by the confirmed news that all proceeds from its theatrical run will be handed straight to not for profit human rights and humanitarian organisations.

THE PROMISE weaves a fictional love-story set during the harrowing true events that happened during the early days of World War I. In Constantinople, during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, 1.5 million Armenians were systematically exterminated by the Turkish military. An event that to this day is still denied by many in Turkey, where it is illegal to discuss the Armenian Genocide! Caught among the conflict is Mikael (Oscar Isaac), who leaves his ancestral village in what is now Southern Turkey to study medicine in Constantinople. It is there that he meets Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), an Armenian artist who is romantically attached to Chris (Christian Bale), an American journalist.

THE PROMISE shares a few commonalities to the recent release VICEROY’S HOUSE. Adding a fictitious love story to tragic real-life events for similar reasons is certainly one of them. Though the on-screen romance depicted in THE PROMISE never truly ignites, it certainly fares better here than in Gurinder Chadha’s film. To be truthful, at 133 minutes in length, this production is quite laborious and considering the extremely upsetting scale of its content, is a little emotionally bland. Various aspects of its quality do equal that of a midday movie on television. Nevertheless, much of the deserved respect coming the way of THE PROMISE will be earned by the factual details it discloses and the awareness it raises. Many Hollywood celebrities including George Clooney, Sylvester Stallone and Leonardo DiCaprio have loudly and proudly boasted their praise for this film too!

A special mention must be made to Kirk Kerkorian, who is of Armenian descent and is the former owner of film production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). THE PROMISE was shot in 72 days across 20 locations, including Spain and New York. It cost almost $100 million to produce, all of which was fully financed by Kirk who sadly passed away during the beginning of its production. This film would not have been made without him.

3 stars

Viewer Discretion/ M (Mature themes and violence)

Trailer / THE PROMISE

Moviedoc thanks Entertainment One for the invite to the screening of this film.

Review by Moviedoc / “LIKE” on Facebook – Moviedoc

©