Look. Here’s the thing about Promised. It’s not terrible but it’s just not the kind of thing I can recommend you make plans to get to a cinema and dish out $20+ to see.
Set in Melbourne in the 1950s and then 1970s, this film is about a young Italian Australian couple Angela (Antoinette Iesue) and Robert (Daniel Berini) whose parents promised them to each other when they were littlies. In adulthood they are living separate successful lives but the promise hangs over their head. Will they or won’t they?! Should they or shouldn’t they?! Honestly, I just wasn’t interested enough in either of them, or their proposed union, to really care that much about how it unfolded. I hate to not be a cheerleader for an Australian film but here we are.
Paul Mercurio and Tina Arena play Angela’s parents and both give serviceable performances but even if Tiny Tina had suddenly started belting out “Sorrento Moon” for no reason it wouldn’t have made this interesting enough for me to suggest you rush out for it.
I can’t reflect on how accurate Promised is as a reflection of the experience of Italian immigrants to Australia but I did turn my mind to whether people who can relate to that story would enjoy this film more than me and I dare say they would. But even then I think I’d be inclined to say watch this on TV, which is where I suspect it would have been better placed in the first place.
Promised opens 24 October in select cinemas.