Love triangle breaks war film ‘The Promise’
“The Promise” tells the neglected story of a great tragedy, the slaughter of more than a million people in the Armenian genocide — and just as importantly, at least in this telling, of a fictional love triangle.
Ugh. Yes. It’s another one of those films in which epic human tragedy serves as a backdrop for a romance. Millions of people die so that a couple might fall in love. Director and co-writer Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda”) tries his best to give the film an epic sweep, but he substitutes quantity of plot threads for quality of story.
Meanwhile Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac and Charlotte Le Bon act for all they’re worth, trying to bring gravity to a clichéd, obvious romantic entanglement. The movie can’t decide what it wants to be, and thus settles for not enough of anything. The film is set during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, just before World War I breaks out. Mikael Boghosian (Isaac) is a village apothecary who wants to go to medical school in Constantinople but can’t afford it. So he gets engaged despite not being in love with the woman (Angela Sarafyan). He will use the dowry to pay for medical school, and promises to return for her. He’s not a cad, exactly — he’s sure he’ll grow to love her.
Mikael moves in with his wealthy uncle in Constantinople, and meets the family nanny, Ana (Le Bon). They have an immediate attraction, which is awkward for both of them. Mikael is engaged, after all, and Ana is in a relationship with American newsman Chris Myers (Bale). He’s a drunk and a loudmouth, but he’s also a dogged reporter who bravely reports on the growing atrocities, at great personal risk.
He knows the danger Mikael will find himself in as an Armenian once hostilities begin in earnest. George immerses us so deeply into the horrors of the labor camps and death marches and genocide that it’s easy to forget, for a time, why the film is called “The Promise.”
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The movie is far more interesting when it concentrates on the emerging conflict than the soap-opera romance. Mikael in particular is in for a rough go of it, as the Turks begin to systematically kill Armenians under the guise of “civil war.” And then he’s back in the love triangle. And out. And in. And so forth. A lot happens in-between, all of it more compelling than whether Mikael or Chris will end up with Ana.
Isaac gives the role all he’s got. Bale is also good; I’ll always root for the reporter, but his character is much more thinly drawn. There are plenty of good smaller performances, including a terrific short turn by James Cromwell as an American ambassador who does not mince words when seeking the release of a prisoner. He’s a breath of fresh air when he shows up late in the film; you wish the story would follow him wherever he goes afterwards.
The film’s intentions are unassailable. The attempt to eradicate Armenians and the resulting slaughter should be more widely known. “The Promise” would have been a much better film if it explored that alone, and left the clichéd romance out of it.