Guy Ritchie's The Covenant: Movie Review

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Emily Beecham

Director: Guy Ritchie

As far from Guy Ritchie's milieu as is remotely possible, The Covenant is perhaps one of the best explorations of the bond between combatants and allies that has been committed to screen since the HBO series Band of Brothers.

While not based directly on a true story, The Covenant follows Jake Gyllenhaal's Sergeant John Kinley, the leader of a platoon in Afghanistan whose group is assigned a new interpreter in the form of Dar Salim's Ahmed.

The relationship may be an uneasy one to begin with due to mistrust on the American troops' side but after Kinley's squad is ambushed during an IED exploration mission, it falls to Ahmed to save the day - at an immense personal cost.

It's not being dismissive to say little happens in The Covenant, but with some taut camerawork, some small character moments and subtle performances from both Gyllenhaal and Salim, Guy Ritchie's latest becomes a compelling movie with a well-told story that stays away from the familiar gung-ho mechanics you've become used to from his usual wham-bam-geezer style of storytelling.

It's a crying shame it's been denied a big screen release, instead being given a life on streaming. 

It works better as a quiet piece that looks at the bond that grows between the pair, and certainly in the film's second half, it becomes something different than perhaps what first was advertised. The fissures that develop from Ahmed's questioning or correcting of Kinley early on lead to suspicions that may - or may not - be misplaced but adds to a frisson of uncertainty of what's playing out.

While other directors would overplay their hand here for dramatic purposes, Ritchie plays a longer narrative game, sowing the seeds for a more emotionally engaging second half. It's here that both Salim and Gyllenhaal come to the fore, and rise to the challenge.

It may be The Covenant fails other characters outside of this orbit - in truth, many feel like hollow cyphers of expository dialogue or necessary army / family stereotypes. But when The Covenant fixes its camera on the deeper conflict Kinley and Ahmed feel and their bond, it soars.

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant streams on Prime Video from Friday June 16th.