The Best Parts Of The Promise Frustratingly Tussle With Its Lack Of Substance

In 1914, young Armenian man Mikael (Oscar Isaac) has traveled to Constantinople, a city located in the Ottoman Empire, in order to further his education that he can pursue his career as a doctor. Being a medical student in this prestigious city is not cheap and his family can afford to send him here by way of a donation from a man in Mikael's village who wishes for Mikael to be arranged to marry his daughter. With both an arranged marriage and prospective years of education lying in front of him, the future seems rife with potential for Mikael, though a wrench is thrown into his marriage-related plans when he begins to fall for the already married Ana (Charlotte Le Bon).


Far greater problems arise for Mikael in the form of a government sanctioned order to round up all the Armenian men and take them to labor camps where they can work for the powerful Turkish government. The captured Armenians, which soon include Mikael and his affluent Uncle, are treated hideously in these work camps, with starving Armenians being shot on sight by guards when they endure even the slightest injury. In the middle of this hideous genocide, Mikael manages to make an escape, with The Promise from here depicting Mikael's attempt to save all of those people he loves, which may just include Ana yet, in the face of a cruel oppressive government.

Giving how little I'd heard of The Promise in terms of overall critical conversation since its blink-and-miss-it April 2017 theatrical run, I was surprised to discover there's a decent but heavily messy movie in here. Writers Terry George and Robin Swicord (the former individual also serves as the director of this production) make the smart decision to frame this entire story from the perspective of Mikael and the other Armenians under attack instead of having the tale be told through the eyes of a non-Armenian individual. No protagonist played by Jai Courtney who learns a tidy lesson about racism being bad by watching this Armenian genocide transpire in the background, The Promise instead realize it'll work best if it actually focuses on people actually affected by the real-life Armenian Genocide (the vast majority of the characters in the film, including Mikael, are fictional, as far as I know).

This means Oscar Isaac gets a much deserved leading role in this project and he does a fine job with the role of Mikael particularly in depicting the characters turn from exuberant hopeful doctor to world-weary survivor of atrocities. One can totally believe Isaac as being a young boyish fella with hopes and ambitions the size of the world itself but he's also able to totally sell Mikael giving a speech to indecisive villagers about the dangerous nature of Turkish government officials by painting a verbal picture of watching the carcasses of the ones (slaughtered by said Turkish government officials) he love rotting in a nearby river. The decision to play this story through the eyes of actual Armenians impacted by this horrific genocide was already a smart storytelling touch and then having a talented actor like Oscar Isaac be the lead of said story is a further clever move.

However, a major issue in the script arises in the decision to frame the plot through a love story, something that feels like a way to channel Titanic and how that 1997 James Cameron motion picture filtered a horrific tragedy through the prism of a tragic romantic tale. The love story between Anna and Mikael just isn't all that interesting, mainly because Ana isn't fully rounded as a character, she barely has any sort of discernable personality to speak of. One can't help but wonder why all the screen time spent on Ana's husband Chris Meyers (Christian Bale) in captivity couldn't have been spent fleshing out Ana more and lending some depth to the love story that the entire movie is fixated on. A similar lack of character development befalls the supporting cast including crucial characters like Maika's arranged wife as well as his mother.

That's really where The Promise falls for me, it's got the right way to present this story and an interestingly written and performed protagonist but the rest of its characters just don't have all that much substance to them which, by proxy, leaves moments intended to be emotionally powerful failing to rise to the occasion. A strong third act involving a ragtag group of Armenians standing up to their oppressions and a brief & unexpected appearance by James Cromwell (always a treat to see him pop up in films!) end The Promise on a higher note, but it's hard not to shake the feeling that this really could have been a far more emotionally involving motion picture than it ended up being.