Penn mightier than the sword

More monsters return to the fray with Sean Penn directing Jack Nicholson as a policeman who makes a pledge to a mother on his retirement day that he'll find the murderer of her little girl.

Keeping his hambones mostly under wraps, Nicholson embraces his own old age to play a man who is driven to keep going by the void he knows will envelop him if he stops, and so ends up making some morally very dubious choices. Ignore Sean Penn's show-off visual touches and Hans Zimmer's score that tries to tell you in music what the film's just told you in image and you've a strongly plotted, psychological biggie.

Verdict: Penn-sive.