The Promise
3 stars
Director: Terry George
Stars: Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon
Duration: 133 mins
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

While various political ailments trouble modern Turkey, The Promise takes a look at an ignominious chapter in its history – the Armenian Genocide, in which it is estimated that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the government of the Ottoman Empire; a genocide that is still not recognised by the Turkish authorities today.

In 1914, on the cusp of World War I, the cosmopolitan city of Constantinople forms the backdrop of a love triangle formed by Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), a young Armenian apothecary from the mountain village to Siroun, who comes to the city to study medicine, American photo-journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale) and Ana (Charlotte le Bon), an Armenian artist recently returned to Turkey from Paris.

Their shared heritage bonds Michael and Ana immediately and it soon develops into something more as Chris travels across the country to investigate sporadic reports of the Turkish authorities’ violent suppression against the Armenian minority. As the clampdown intensifies – while overseas the Great War is brewing – Michael and Ana must fight for their survival and that of their people.

It is common for filmmakers to set human dramas against the backdrop of epic, historical events – and create masterpieces such as Dr Zhivago (the Russian Revolution), The Killing Fields (the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) and Apocalypse Now (the Vietnam War). Yet, while quite epic in scope, The Promise never reaches such lofty heights, faltering between a passionate love story, which often fails to engage on an emotional level, and a historical narrative.

Director Terry George, who garnered acclaim for his visceral Hotel Rwanda, set against the backdrop of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was passionate about telling this story at the cinema because he believed “that this attempt to eradicate an entire nation has almost disappeared from the history books because of collective denial and political expediency”.

To its credit, the film does a decent job of depicting the unfolding slaughter, as Armenian residences and businesses are ransacked and set alight. As some people are marched away from home, ostensibly for their own safety, a woman is shot in the head in cold blood right in front of her young child. An entire village is rounded up and brutally murdered, their bodies piled up to rot by the river, as the country’s leaders talk about restoring the glory of the Empire. It is a history lesson certainly worth absorbing and, yet, the film all too often pushes back the horrors of the tragedy to the background to make way for the love story, which, despite the presence of Isaac and Bale, is rather bland and often schmaltzy.

It is Isaac who makes the strongest impression. The actor, who after his breakthrough performance in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewelyn Davis in 2013, has consistently delivered committed and versatile performances. He is the one to pitch the emotional anchor in the film in his driven, eloquent, performance. Michael is a good man, well-meaning and innocent as he navigates the novel­ty of city life away from his humble village, burdened by the promise he made on his departure to his intended bride.

Isaac makes the most of the dramatic moments the character faces as his dreams of becoming a doctor are irrevocably shattered. He eschews mawkishness for genuine sentiment, most poignantly at the point where he realises he has lost his family altogether, and with them any links to his people and his past. It is a moment that is heartbreaking; and possibly the strongest of the film.

On the other hand, Bale, another truly versatile actor who normally can be counted on to deliver a first-rate performance, surprisingly disappoints. Seeming rather distracted for the most part, his character barely registers, making his side of the love triangle the weakest, while not really getting the core of the hardened journalist he is depicting.

Charlotte le Bon, for the most part, holds her own opposite her more recognisable co-stars. She is let down by a script – by Robin Swicord – that lacks depth in both characterisation and narrative.

Add to that some head-scratching casting (the very British Tom Hollander as an Armenian prisoner of war), Maltese audiences will, of course, recognise various familiar landmarks. Many scenes of the movie were shot hearly a year or so ago, with Attard’s Villa Bologna playing a large role.

The poorly computer-generated backdrops of the Bosphorus are a little distracting.

It’s a disappointing result. Yet, for all its flaws, The Promise serves as a sobering reminder that today, 100 years later, we are still sadly witnessing the brutal suppression of innocent people in the region and its environs, millions of whom have been forced out of homes and robbed of a future.

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