THE PROMISE – Review

(l-r) Charlotte Le Bon as Ana, Oscar Isaac as Michael, and Christian Bale as Chris, in THE PROMISE. Photo by Jose Haro. Courtesy of Open Road ©

The Armenian genocide during World War I is the backdrop for THE PROMISE, tale of war and love starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale.

A hundred years on, many people still know little about this early 20th century genocide in the waning days of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire, an event the Turkish government still refuses to acknowledge. It has been said that the world has so thoroughly forgotten the Armenian genocide only a few years afterward, that it encouraged Hitler to undertake his own genocide. But some Armenians did survive and the genocide is getting renewed attention after a century.

In director Terry George’s lush historical drama, Oscar Isaac plays Michael, a young Armenian man, the son of the local pharmacist, from a small village who travels to Constantinople to fulfill his life-long ambition to attend medical school. His pharmacist father is respected but poor, and the son becomes engaged to the daughter of a wealthy villager, using the dowry to pay for his education. The young couple barely know each other but the young man is confident they will learn to love each other.

Leaving his fiancée behind, the young Armenian arrives in the big, cosmopolitan city of Constantinople, where he stays with a wealthy uncle and his family. Michael meets another medical student who is the son of a powerful Turkish official. His new friend introduces him to American journalist Chris (Welsh actor Christian Bale, once again sporting an American accent) and Chris’ Paris-raised Armenian girlfriend, a beauty named Ana (Charlotte Le Bon). Michael is smitten immediately, and while he grapples with his promise to the girl back home, war breaks out, disrupting all their lives.

Like in Germany a few decades later or Rwanda more recently, what seems to be a peaceful integration of different peoples suddenly gives way to a government persecution and open prejudice. In this case, the Muslim Turks who rule the Ottoman Empire turn on the Christian Armenian minority, subjecting them to a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” by removing them villages, followed by secret mass killings.

It is an appalling historical moment, the first genocide of the 20th century, and an event that needs to be better known. One of the most chilling scenes in the film is when an Ottoman official denies that fighting is taking place between Turkish troops and Armenian resisters. “There is no war,” he coolly claims.

The acting is strong in this historical drama but the personal story has a familiar feel. This romantic triangle, or maybe that should be a square or double triangle since four people are involved, for the provides the dramatic arc for a little history lesson in what happened to the Armenian people, in the style of HOTEL RWANDA. The film is beautifully shot, packed with period details and sweeping vistas, with Spain and Malta standing in for Turkey. It is a worthy subject, one that deserves the careful attention is gets in this historical drama, but the personal dramatic arc sometimes loses focus as the director concentrates on fitting in as many historical touch points as possible.

THE PROMISE is not a perfect drama but certainly is a worthwhile film for shining a spotlight on a too long forgotten shameful chapter in history.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars