In theaters Friday, April 21
Reviewed by Renee Brown
10/10
Basically, an interpreter for the U.S. Military drags his wounded Sargent across the Afghan desert, while being chased by The Taliban. When Sargent John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets shipped back home, Ahmed (Dar Salim), the interpreter, goes into hiding to save his family’s life. But with a much-promised visa to America not forthcoming John decides to go fetch Ahmad himself.
I don’t give 10’s easily.
This is a 10. That’s saying something since the military/war genre isn’t one I care for. Yet, this movie blew away with its perfection. Guy Ritchie’s direction genius is on full display — everything from the score (or lack thereof), to the casting, to the stunning wide shots, to the intense close-ups was a study in perfection. He deserves an Oscar for this.
Hyperbole, perhaps, but too often we see military movies full of men doing amazing things, in the face of danger, with their swagger on full display. There is no tension, the danger is false and we know it. We know that it is going to be a study in triumph. With The Covenant, I was never sure what was going to happen, although I knew the story. I was so tense that I actually exclaimed, in a theater full (with not a seat left empty) of people and I did not care.
Jake Gyllenhaal is made for this kind of movie, he can be the bad-ass in one minute and tender in the next. His face is just hard enough to be believable in this role and his acting was on point. If anyone but Dar Selim had been across from him, this movie might have been nearly laughable. Yet, Selim delivers and does it over and over, until we stop seeing him and only see Ahmed. Everything he does is sublime, I cannot rave enough about this actor. It only makes it all the better that the chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Selim is so intense that they can actually exchange a look and convey a wealth of meaning.
Best of all, Ritchie got out of the way and let them connect. He encouraged silences and moments where emotion takes the stage — leaving everything around these two amazing actors to contribute to a feeling of vastness and insurmountable hardship. Then he drives the danger home with intense and very personal killings that are more disturbing than anything I’ve seen in the theater in a long time.
Someone said, this is more than a movie. This is a parable for the nation. And they are right.
Originally posted on the Geek Girl Riot podcast on idobi.com
