REVIEW: GUY RITCHIE'S 'THE COVENANT'

4/5

Lone Survivors.

123 Mins. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Antony Starr, Alexander Ludwig, Sean Sagar, Bobby Schofield, Emily Beecham & Jonny Lee Miller. Director: Guy Ritchie. On: Amazon Prime.

Beyond the call of duty of modern warfare movies like 'Zero Dark Thirty', 'American Sniper' and 'Jarhead' (also starring the great Jake Gyllenhaal), 'Lock, Stock' London gangster films and 'Sherlock Holmes' cinematic series director Guy Ritchie holds 'The Covenant' with that very movie itself. The gentleman's agreement with the 2006 supernatural horror starring The Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan himself, that he wouldn't steal their name. Therefore, 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' (originally translated as 'The Interpreter') out this weekend in the land of the rising sun, available on Amazon Prime, if you're a subscriber in other territories is far from pretentious pondering. The title referring to the sacred bond, duty and commitment to your fellow man, especially in times of war. 'The Covenant' also aligns itself with one of the great Guy's best pictures. The great Brit forming a kinship with his Hollywood lead that goes beyond the big names and tabloid news both have been read all about. Ever since 'Donnie Darko' and 'Brokeback Mountain', Gyllenhaal has shot to the star-studded stratosphere like his sister. But since 'Prisoners', and in films such as the nuanced 'Nightcrawler', Netflix's 'The Guilty' remake and even the mysterious Mysterio in 'Spider-Man: Far From Home', Jake has been no less than a master of portraying rage in all its dark and untapped corners (see 'Southpaw', 'Stronger' and so much more).

Bearded and brilliant, before reuniting with Ritchie once again (for an untitled action flick), and doubling-up with Amazon for the 'Road House' remake with Connor McGregor, Gyllenhaal tugs at his in an incredible scene where two lone survivors lost at war together after a Wahlberg like descent down the perilous, ambushed mountains of Afghanistan, can't put what they've just faced into words. Backs turned and unspoken gestures unseen, this speaks to man's pain and the perplexing one of veterans of war that we'll never know unless we experience the same frontlines. It's a masterful moment from all involved which takes this picture from just another war one (although there is never, "just another war") to a best one. One of the greatest in either big name's filmography. Or the new one of a definitive Dal Salim who makes this picture his own, forming a deeper and compelling covenant with Jake's sergeant. Clever camera work in the vehicular mirror of their first meeting captures it all perfectly. And from blood to sand after, it never lets up until it finds its home. We just wish this one had its place in award season, at least in nomination, as it lays as forgotten as some of the unheard statistics that return (or cruelly don't) from a war that raged since the tower fell and still hasn't finished causing more pain to everyone involved, foreign or domestic. 'Borgen' star Salim paints this picture profoundly in a face that maps even more than his cold-blooded nature to conflict and his nurturing kindness to the brothers he is banded to in arms. 

An artillery of accented action brings a battalion of brilliant but bracing scenes in a film that may even best the beginning of Mark Wahlberg's perfect partnership with Peter Berg (one that gave us the fellow public service responsibility power of 'Deepwater Horizon' and 'Patriots' Day'). Setting off a new one between these two guys. The cast in these barracks is bountiful, too. Amazon's own Homelander Antony Starr is in prime position to be one with this and the other 'Boys' he goes to superhero war with. Whilst actual 'Lone Survivor' and 'The Hunger Games' star Alexander Ludwig offers experienced veteran counsel as Gyllenhaal feels like the guilty again. Nursing beers, being put on hold longer than the last time your tech failed and a view from a perfect home with a loyal and loving ('Hail Ceasar's' Emily Beecham, underused, but undeniable) wife that he can't see for his thousand yard stare back to the place he doesn't belong, but left is bruised soul in. Making their mark, Sean Sagar and Bobby Schofield round out the rest of this cast in conflict, before Jake unleashes a roundhouse like Swayze on the world's most famous UFC fighter. But it's an American accented 'Trainspotting' star Jonny Lee Miller that really impresses as a colonel. Almost as unrecognizable as the time he played Prime Minister John Major perfectly for 'The Crown'. But give that to Salim whose chances of going unheralded after this would be slim to none in a just world. But do we live in that? The real life behind this incredible and inspired story paints a different picture in a time when Hollywood would prefer to gloss over what's actually real. Maybe the real covenant should be between doing and what's right. Make that your bond as you band together with your brothers. Then all might begin to be fair in love, life and the very wars we rage for those same sins. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Lone Survivor', 'Jarhead', 'The Guilty'.