The Promise (2016)

3/4

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Marwin Kenzari, Igal Naor, Angela Sarafyan, Milene Mayer, Stuart Scudamore

Not to be confused with the 2005 Japanese film

"The Promise" is a daring effort with noble intentions.  It dramatizes a shamefully not well known event in world history for a mass audience.  It's $90 million budget fully funded by Armenian billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who had family that lived through these events, it refuses to allow these atrocities to be ignored no longer.  While a lot of its potential is unrealized (much of which has to do with the love story), there are just as many scenes of real power.

Mikael Boghosian (Isaac) is an Armenian apothecary in a small Turkish town.  It's been a family tradition for 200 years, but he desires to do more.  He wants to go to medical school, but lacks money.  So he marries Miral (Sarafyan), a local girl, and uses the dowry to pay for his education.  There, he meets some new friends: a Turkish Muslim named Emre (Kenzari) who is attending medical school on his father's orders, his nieces' tutor, Ana Khezarian (Le Bon), and a drunken American reporter named Chris Myers (Bale).  While Ana and Chris are in a relationship, there is an undeniable attraction growing between Mikael and Ana.  But when war breaks out, the two are separated and the diseased Ottoman Emprie is intent on wiping out the entire Armenian population.

"The Promise" works better as a historical epic than a love story.  While there is chemistry between the three principals, neither couple would be remembered next to Jack and Rose.  However, as an epic tragedy, it's on surer ground.  The atrocities and the desperation to survive are all well presented, although with only a title card to set up the historical context, it's hard to register the scope or the motivations of the genocide.

The performances are all fine.  Oscar Isaac continues to demonstrate why he is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood.  Charlotte Le Bon is just as delightful and fetching as she was in "The Hundred Foot Journey."  Christian Bale is his usual reliable self as the third man (and avoids all the clichés of such a character...thankfully).  Shohreh Aghdashloo steals scenes as Mikael's mother Marta, something she is able to do seemingly without effort.  Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari is affable but a little flat as Emre, who must choose between friendship and duty to his powerful father, Ismet (Scudamore).  James Cromwell, Jean Reno, Rade Szerbezija and in a blink and you'll miss it performance, Michael Stahl-David, all have small appearances.

The problem is that screenplay doesn't allow the characters or the plot to breathe.  This isn't a particularly well written movie.  The plot isn't always smooth and the love story veers close to soap opera (Ana is always made to believe that Mikael or Chris is dead).  Despite the valiant efforts of its cast, the people they portray remain two dimensional.  Director Terry George doesn't have a good feel for epics; the characters are kept at a distance and the film is awkwardly structured and paced.

And yet, there are moments that really do land.  There's plenty of horror to be found when viewing people be led down a road in a line as far as the eye can see, and how a girl runs to join the back of the line after her mother is shot for falling by the wayside.  Or seeing the results of a town annihilated by Turkish soldiers.  And the final twenty minutes are quite suspenseful.

So it's not perfect.  The script needed rewrites and the plot is clunky.  But you know what?  I'm disappointed that I missed it in theaters.  This may have worked better there.  Still, it's worth seeing on Blu Ray (the cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobeis excellent).  If only so you will be made aware of a shameful event in our past.