Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

erikfelton SPOILERS galoreSo it's a lazy Sunday morning and I'm half asleep with the TV on and all of a sudden a new movie starts and I hear Melissa Manchester. That woke me up enough to see the opening credits to a movie called "The Promise". Starring Kathleen Quinlan, one of those actresses from the 70s and 80s that you'd recognize but wouldn't know her name. The movie starts and it's a montage of YOUNG LOVE. However, I was like "That's not Kathleen Quinlan is it? I thought she was prettier than that!" Well, I'll get to that in a bit. But she had these impossible buck teeth that she couldn't close her mouth or speak normally, a fake nose appliance, and a poorly fitting wig that looks like something from John Waters' Hairspray. Anyway, the story is this: Young love meets up against boy's domineering wealthy mother. The couple decides to elope anyway and on the way their 1976 BMW gets in a head on collision with a MAC truck. Boy gets banged up, and girl has her face destroyed. The evil mother makes a deal with girl that she will pay for her extensive plastic surgery so long as she never speaks to her son ever again. Okay... Mother tells her son that girl died in the wreck, and THIS is when the film gets unbelievable... Girl comes out of surgery looking like Kathleen Quinlan with a fashionable hairstyle and duds. ONE YEAR LATER the two lovebirds randomly meet up and he doesn't recognize her! (I was constantly wondering why he just randomly accepted her death without trying to find her gravesite or a death certificate, but I was thinking too much, not a good thing for this movie). Anyway, yada yada yada, in a "An Affair to Remember" throwback, he realizes that she is actually his love that he made "The Promise" to that he would never say goodbye (they kept playing that song over and over and over that I started getting annoyed by it). The ending is that they get back together and kiss, and goddangit my eyes started watering. I'm cynical as hell, but dang I am easy prey for a schlocky, impossibly manipulative chick flick. I made it through the entire film, so that's worth 5 out of ten.My complaints: Basically the film is so implausible and unrealistic that you really have to suspend disbelief to a level not known before to swallow this one. Bladerunner is more realistic. But here's the thing, loverboy did not recognize his lovergirl after only one year! She had plastic surgery, but she didn't have a personality transplant too! I mean, come on, if I got into a disastrous accident and had plastic surgery, I would expect my partner to recognize me with a new nose, teeth, and hairdo. I still have the same eyes, voice, mannerisms, and well, everything that makes me me. Anyway, don't try to overthink this one. It really could work in a campy way, and having Melissa Manchester belting out every now and then is a hoot. Her voice is special, but at the saddest and sweetest part of the film, her booming voice was shocking and distracting to the final scene. Melissa Manchester was to this song as Faye Dunaway was to Mommie Dearest, total overkill!!! Not worth your time unless you are trying to get out of bed and looking for a reason not to...

moonspinner55 Young couple in New England, on their way to get hitched despite the groom-to-be's disapproving mama, are involved in a horrible car accident; the man lapses into a short coma, during which time his mother sends his disfigured girlfriend to the West Coast for extensive plastic surgery on her face--providing she never contact her fiancé again! Will they eventually cross paths, and will he recognize her if they do? Hard to believe anyone with any self-respect will care, especially after an excruciating opening: a lyrical montage of 'coupling' culminating in a love-pact made on a cliff overlooking the sea! After her triumphant performance in 1977's "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" failed to make her a star, Kathleen Quinlan probably saw this cornball venture as an opportunity to break into the big-time. Sad to say, it's an obvious throwback to the 'woman's weepies' of the 1940s, hopelessly out-of-date and out-of-touch. Quinlan spends the first 30 minutes of the picture in an ill-fitting wig, a false nose and funny teeth; still, she isn't changed THAT much after surgery! For the movie to work even on the most basic of levels, the audience is required to completely suspend their disbelief--whilst throwing logic and credibility out the window. Perhaps nimble handling, some self-effacing humor, or even a knowingly camp undermining might have saved the film. Alas, it takes itself far too seriously--and is far too strenuous--to be any fun. The performers (Stephen Collins, Beatrice Straight, and most especially Quinlan) are reduced to dummy-level, while a mind-boggling romantic song (Oscar-nominated!) wails away on the soundtrack. "The Promise" is best described as 'icky'. *1/2 from ****

cubicneon Creative gal meets architect student and of course they are very young and full of promise. The story is one about a tragic twist of fate that leaves you with a good feeling after the fella figures out why this artist pulls on his heartstrings. The ending at the cliff where it's all figured out leaves me in tears no matter how many times I see it. Pluses include the extra information about the cosmetic surgery. Friend, Ben is a handsome and has the spark of the youthful college jock even years later as he works with Collins. Quinlan is very beautiful, and the early shots of her before the accident is a compliment to the makeup artist.Quinlan and Collins really made this movie work. Both are so believable and their chemistry is felt by the viewer.

itswindee This is one of the best true love stories I have ever seen. It is one of my favorites. The plot summary is much more than what the fellow above wrote. While yes a girl & boy fall in love and the girl gets her face torn off in a car accident, the real core of the film is that true love, pure love doesn't come along everyday. It is very rare, very precious and it should be valued and not taken for granted. The plot synopsis is this: the boy comes from a very wealthy influential family with a very dominering mother who forbids her son from marrying the girl who doesn't have 2 cents to rub together but is a struggling artist trying to make it. The boy trying to break free from the tight grip his mother has on him wisks the girl away and plan to elope. On the way to a chapel tragedy strikes and they are involved in a horrible car accident. Both are taken to the hospital, the boy is injured and the girl's face is terrible disfigured. While they lie in their hospital beds in different rooms, his mother decides to pay the girl a visit. The girl's entire head & face is bandaged, all you recognize is her voice. His mother expresses how sorry she is that this has happened to her and offers the girl a chance to have reconstructive surgery, all paid for by her with all of the necessary therapy needed physically and emotionally. While this sounds to good to be true, the catch is, if she agrees to have this done she must promise to NEVER see her son again. The devious and controlling mother continues by saying, if she doesn't have the surgery done her son wouldn't want her anyway with her grotesque face. At least this way, her son can move on and have a life and she too can move on and have a life. With a heavy heart, the girl agrees to his mothers terms. I don't want to ruin the rest of the film so I won't say anymore. For those of you who might not believe in love, this movie might change your mind. It is worth seeing.