Synopsis
A romantic drama set in Germany just before WWI and centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's teacher. Separated by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another.
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Cast
- Rebecca HallLotte Hoffmeister
- Alan RickmanKarl Hoffmeister
- Richard MaddenFriedrich Zeitz
- Toby MurrayOtto Hoffmeister
- Maggie SteedFrau Hermann
- Shannon TarbetAnna
- Jean-Louis SbilleHans, the Butler
- Sarah MessensMagda, the Maid
- Jonathan SawdonThe Engineer
- Christelle CornilPost Office Employee
Recommendations
- 67
Entertainment Weekly
It’s well made but drearily familiar. - 50
Slant Magazine
Patrice Leconte struggles to find a coherent rhythm, a problem exacerbated by a hurried running time that compresses some of the novella's more interesting socio-political nuances. - 40
New York Daily News
A romantic triangle featuring Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman and “Game of Thrones” costar Richard Madden has no business being this dull. - 40
The New York Times
Ms. Hall’s Lotte is the weak link in the triangle. Despite all her character’s flowery words of longing, she can’t convey the heat bottled under Lotte’s demure demeanor. - 33
The Playlist
Leconte’s never been the edgiest of filmmakers, but A Promise is so free of anything close to an edge that it’s like watching a beige sphere for ninety-odd minutes—and it feels much longer. - 30
Variety
Led by a trio of lackluster performances from Alan Rickman, Rebecca Hall and “Game of Thrones” thesp Richard Madden, this awkward, passionless drama conveys neither the sensuality nor the drawn-out sense of longing required by its period tale of a young secretary who falls in love with his employer’s wife. - 30
Village Voice
No bodices were harmed in veteran French filmmaker Patrice Leconte's chaste and bloodless English-language debut.
