Ryan's Movie Blog: Movie Review: The Promise (2017)

Hello All,

Okay, so, before I begin the review today, I kind of have to talk about a rather serious subject related to the film, in order to bring you some context to what I’m about to talk about.

During both the beginning of World War One, and near the end of the Ottoman Empire an event occurred which, while not entirely lost to history, is not talked about as often as another similar event during world war two. From 1915 to 1923, The Ottoman Empire (Now modern day Turkey) committed the Armenian Genocide, during which over 1.5 Million Armenian citizens were systematically killed or deported from the country entirely. Today (April 24th) is actually Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, so (entirely by accident) I decided to go see The Promise Today, because the story is set during this time in history. While not the first film to cover this era in history, it is certainly the most high profile in recent memory.

So, on this day of remembrance, how well does this film do? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - Mikael (Oscar Isaac) is an Armenian who has moved to Constantinople to become a medical student. There he meets American Journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale) and his lover Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), with whom Mikael falls in love. When the empire joins World War One, the government begins to round up Armenian citizens, including Mikael, who must find his way to freedom and back to Ana.

Pros - The cast is on point here, as each of the main three bring in tremendous performances. You really do feel for these characters, and what they’re going through, and the depiction of the events going on are honestly just brutal. The film’s got this real classical look to it as well, capturing both the era and the region beautifully in the background.

Cons - The biggest problem the film has is actually the love triangle itself. While not taking away too much from what we see of the events themselves, it doesn’t really add much to them either. It feels mostly like the genocide is just the background noise to advance the romance plot, which itself is not really interesting. The romance plot is mostly predictable, and what moments they throw in to change it up just feel cheap at best, and creepy at worst.

Final Score - 5/10

If you’re a romance film fan, especially of Titanic, then I’d say go for it. For anyone looking for that film that will truly bring to life the horrors of the Armenian Genocide, I’d say just lower your expectations. Anyone else, if you’re not interested, don’t bother.

Next: Born in China, The Lost City of Z, and Their Finest - So yeah, expect these tomorrow, as I’m basically just rounding up the last bit of the films I’ve watched in the past few days.

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Want to read more? Click Below for my last review. Hint: Last time I reviewed two movies. You can read those by clicking the link below.