‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ Review – Guy Meets Guns In A New Form

Guy Ritchie has often been criticized for operating solely within his comfort zone. The brash, suave style of nearly all of his films suits him well, and it suits those who are fans of him, too. But for the average onlooker, Ritchie has been dubbed a one-trick pony, at least until now. With his aptly titled Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, he breaks his own mold, reaching out into war cinema with this subtle, grounded effort that is both just like him, and nothing like him at all. The film feels like a mix between a classic Ritchie romp and David Ayer’s Fury. The former is represented in the breakneck, scene-to-scene nature of it all, and the latter in the bond at the center of the film, as well as the performances that accentuate it.

Ritchie steers a driven Jake Gyllenhaal performance for the books; what starts in quiet brooding ends in wild, freeing displays of heart. His character is so well-written, especially in the absence of dialogue. It’s a big help that his counterpart Ahmed, played by Dar Salim, is the absolute soul of the film. Their arcs are mirrored, and essentially fold in on each-other to culminate in the ultimate resolution of them both. That writing is brilliant. The two of them merge to create a dynamic duo, the likes of which will certainly define this film for years to come. War films can be notoriously overdone here and in many places, but The Covenant avoids most of that problem.

This may be out of his comfort zone, but Ritchie is still very much in his element. Stylistic captions consistently grace the screen at just the right moments, which has been a neat recent trend in Ritchie outings (see the chapters in Wrath of Man). This, in addition to long-lasting, unique camera angles and expectedly impressive shootout sequences add to The Covenant’s ability to avoid the aforementioned draw. The film feels exceptionally fresh at every turn. Guy Ritchie deserves respect for making a movie that achieves the best of both his worlds. Even the dialogue is totally up his alley. This is an equal parts witty and complex effort in that regard, which leads to tonal perfection. Funny scenes can (and often do) immediately drop into ultra-serious moments and it never feels out of place. The Covenant is an absolute clinic on the character front.

Despite that, the final act of this film feels nothing like what I just described, and it makes the entire experience worse in retrospect. It doesn’t ruin it, but after spending an hour and a half with these characters and this story, and getting prepared for a finale (which is remarkably well set up) it stings to sit through said finale and feel nothing. The film just devolves into something that we’ve all seen before; it becomes exactly what you feared it would be: an odd, misleading mass of explosions and senseless moments that are supposed to serve as the crux of the entire thing. The final product is crushed under the weight of its own misguided setup.

The ending does work on a technical level though, even if just barely still. The character arcs are wrapped up, the good guys win and the bad guys lose, but it just feels so incomplete. Regardless, if a film works, it works. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is a good time, and it works. Brimming with familiar flair and the ever-relatable fire that any war-based story will ignite, it slips, even stumbles, but it never actually falls. The strong cast and reliable direction from someone who has become an industry staple over the years carry this thing over the top. A film can be both very good and very flawed, and Guy Ritchie’s front-lines epic is the perfect example of that phenomenon.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is currently playing in theaters courtesy of MGM and STX Films. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02PPMPArNEQ]