The film revolves around the last days of the Ottoman Empire. The film embodies those full stories about this empire and the path of the love triangle between Michael, a brilliant medical student, beautiful and sophisticated Anna, and Chris - the famous American journalist based in Paris and all of whom go around in one frame.
The Promise is drenched in production value and replete with ravishing shots of sunrises and sunsets, but it's in the scenes of fleeing, of battle, and of horrendous loss that the film is at its most effective.
As one might expect, the horrors and the normalisation of same are deftly handled, even when the dialogue is overloaded with historical and political details.
Equal parts romantic period piece and pointed historical drama. It's also a film with emotional power to go with strong storytelling, sure to haunt the hearts and minds of those who watch it.
You have to swallow some inadequacies to get the most out of The Promise. It is appealingly photographed and boasts some stunning location work, yet it's also saddled with the tone of a biblical epic, invisibly watermarked with the label important.
Director Terry George delivers a scalding dramatization of the Ottoman Empire's 1915 genocidal annihilation of its Armenian citizens, and then dulls it with a soapy, invented love triangle.
A sprawling, '60s-style epic with just enough political intrigue to prop up the occasionally wobbly romantic triangle formed by Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, and an uncharacteristically ill-fitting Christian Bale.