Running into the fall festival with appearances at Venice and TIFF, the latest from French filmmaker Patrice Leconte (“Man On The Train,” “My Best Friend“), the English language “A Promise,” failed to make much of a splash. So even as the film still needs to find a U.S. distribution, it’s gearing up for release overseas and the first trailer has landed for the movie.
Based on Stefan Zweig‘s novella “Journey into the Past,” and starring Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, and Richard Madden, “A Promise” tells the story of a young engineer who becomes private secretary and second-in-command to the owner of a foundry, but winds up with the arms of the wealthy man’s wife. Hot stuff it would seem, but our man in Venice was not impressed in the slightest, calling the movie “so free of anything close to an edge that it’s like watching a beige sphere for ninety-odd minutes” and more suited for “the Masterpiece Theatre crowd.” Ouch.
“A Promise” opens in France on April 16, 2014. Watch below.