Like the French director Bruno Dumont's recent masterpiece, "Humanite," which was an obvious influence, "The Pledge" sinks into the agitated mind of a police investigator obsessed with the rape and murder of a young girl.
That truth is the inconvenient one, both to politicians who must pledge obvious impossibilities in the popularity contest of election, and corporations, who have learned that the simplest way to sell something is to claim that it costs nothing.
To Walker's obvious delight, Lamb pledged to have fortnightly meetings to discuss mental health issues with officials and experts in the field.
The voluntary pledge has obvious pitfalls of its own.
The partisan reason for this pledge is obvious.
Restaurants expressed to us that putting straws in drinks was purely habitual, and that once brought to their attention, the choice seemed rather obvious; to take the pledge.
Nowhere has this been more obvious than the laws pledged to give children the right to transfer out of struggling schools.
The Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, is a Catholic but says he disagrees with his church on abortion.On the other hand, for people with strong anti-nuclear views, whether Catholic-inspired or otherwise the SNP was the obvious choice; it had pledged to use its influence to stop any Labour government renewing the weapons.
During those weeks, as a matter of obvious fairness, the military should pledge not to discharge any more soldiers who acknowledge being gay.
And although the unions may be unhappy with many of Labour's policies, there is no obvious rival to whom they could pledge allegiance.
Newmont has pledged to offer investors an obvious alternative to Barrick by unwinding Normandy's hedge book, making it fully exposed to changes in gold prices.
