La Promesse (The Promise)

Name: La Promesse (The Promise)
Genre: Drama
Released: May 16, 1997
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 82
Cast: Assita Ouedraogo, Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet

1997

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 12 Ratings

See All

8.2

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8.2	Your Score
8.2	User Score Universal acclaim based on 12 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: May 16, 1997 | Not Rated

Starring: Assita Ouedraogo, Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet

Summary: Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injuredIgor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou's wife, Assita.… Expand

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 93 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

David Ansen

Urgently, without sentimentality, "La Promesse" shows us the birth of a conscience, and its cost. This fleet, powerful movie may prove to be a classic. [30 June 1997, p.79]

Kenneth Turan

The conflicts involved are intense and absorbing, proving that compelling moral dilemmas make for the most dramatic cinema. Read full review

Jay Carr

Hurtling from the screen with a vigor and importance that are all but absent from contemporary film, it's a deeply moving social drama, raw and gritty in style, shining with moral purpose as it delivers a scathing take-it-into-the-streets critique of feral capitalism and racism. [18 July 1997, p.D1]

Stephen Hunter

Bleak and post-industrial, this is no easy film to watch. It hasn't a conventional image of beauty anywhere within its grim 93 minutes, being shot in harsh natural light that somehow plays up the grime and chill of back-alley life. But by the end, it's suffused with something utterly rare: moral beauty. [27 June 1997, p.D6]

Marjorie Baumgarten

La Promesse is a penetrating coming-of-age story, one that argues that adulthood begins with the emergence of moral convictions. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

The world of this film is like nothing most Americans have seen. But we know what it's about. It's about greed and guilt and how inconvenient it can be to have a soul. Read full review

David Baron

The Dardenne brothers keep dialogue to a minimum but create strongly defined characters by letting their cameras linger on their actors' expressive faces. Their cast works small wonders with this extra-verbal strategy, and by the time the film's stunningly simple finale arrives, it seems both inevitable and marvelously serendipitous. [21 Nov. 1997, p.L34]

SEE ALL 17 REVIEWS

Write a Review

Negative:

No reviews yet.