Sean Penn is an actor with an offbeat, eccentric style who can really breathe life into a part. He's intense and gives you the feeling he's setting high standards for himself, that he's making a real effort to achieve something exceptional.

That willingness to work hard to get it right also comes across now that he is behind the camera, in this case as the director of The Pledge. It seems a lot of care went into the making of this film but maybe just a bit too much. The result is stilted, as if he was trying too hard.

Then there is the Jack Nicholson factor. He has received so much praise for his wonderful career that it is almost impossible to live up to expectations. Jack now just plays Jack. He's trapped by the image of his own recycled self.

So what you end up with is self-consciousness both from the director and from the star. That does not make for great film-making.

Detective Jerry Black played by Nicholson is a cop on the verge of retirement. A little girl is horribly murdered and he gets the short straw as the unlucky one to break the news to the parents. The mother practically goes berserk and elicits a promise from him in a somewhat campy scene that the police will get their man no matter what. They do. He retires. End of story - at least for the younger cops. Not so for Jerry. He cannot let go of his hunch that the killer is still at large. So he continues his own private investigation of the murder even after he's left the force.

This is where the film departs from TV mini-series format into more of a character study of the retired cop who just won't quit. The fishing's great, wild horses frolic in the snow and the early morning mists rising over the mountains create the perfect retirement atmosphere. Alas, the director goes overboard in juxtaposing all that serenity with the angst of our relentless hero on the trail of the now serial killer.

It takes a lot of style and pacing to flash back and forth from action scenes to images and thoughts in the mind of an actor. Here the director dwells too long on the soaring birds and sparkling wildflowers before panning back to Jack Nicholson's characteristic frown as he contemplates his latest clue (sorry was this a nature flick?). The weakness of the script doesn't help. Sometimes you almost have to pity a great actor having to crank out a predictable, lightweight line and do so with conviction.

In the final analysis The Pledge will fade away as a film that might have made it but, despite great actors and occasionally sensitive directing, failed to live up to its promise.