Keeping the Promise

In 1768, the Hallowell family leaves Massachusetts for a new life as settlers in the Maine wilderness. Will Hallowell and his thirteen-year-old son Matt build a cabin and clear land, then Will sets out to bring the rest of the family north, leaving Matt alone to guard their claim through the coming winter. Their survival depends on the boy's growing friendship with members of the Penobscot people, who teach him what the frontier demands.

Keeping the Promise is a 1997 Canadian-American television drama directed by Sheldon Larry, his second feature after Terminal Choice (1985) and the second of four films he directed in a career that later included Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (2004) and Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005). Gerald Di Pego wrote the screenplay, and Keith Carradine plays Will, with Annette O'Toole as Anne Hallowell and Brendan Fletcher as Matt. Gordon Tootoosis, Maury Chaykin and David Cubitt appear among the twenty credited cast members.

Made for television and running ninety minutes, the film has drawn modest attention on IMDb, where it holds a 6.3 rating from 391 votes, a small sample that suggests a limited but settled audience. It remains a straightforward frontier drama about a boy left to fend for himself.