Jake Gyllenhaal is a soldier with a massive debt to pay in the new trailer for Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. Gyllenhaal is certainly no stranger to intense movie roles, having starred in hard-hitting dramas like Nightcrawler, Rendition, Zodiac, Prisoners, Stronger and many more. Indeed, Gyllenhaal seems attracted to roles that require fierce emotional commitment, and involve characters who are placed in highly stressful situations.
It should be no surprise then to see Gyllenhaal back in the emotional meat grinder in the first trailer for his new movie Guy Ritchie's The Covenant, a war drama from Sherlock Holmes director Ritchie (via MGM).
The trailer is certainly very intense as it sets up the story of Gyllenhaal’s character, a soldier suffering from amnesia who feels compelled to return to the battlefield for deeply personal reasons. Gyllenhaal indeed looks to be in fine form as he plays another of his complex characters, in a film that looks like it should appeal to fans of his work in Jarhead.
Everything We Know About Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant was announced back in 2021 under the title The Interpreter. That now-discarded title obviously refers to another key character in the film, an interpreter named Ahmed played by Dar Salim. As revealed in the movie’s synopsis, it’s Ahmed who saves the life of Gyllenhaal’s character Sergeant John Kinley after the latter is wounded in combat in Afghanistan. The above trailer reveals that Kinley later can’t remember anything that happened to him, but does remember Ahmed. Kinley is then called back to action when he discovers that Ahmed is still stuck in Afghanistan with his family, and is in danger from the Taliban.
In addition to Gyllenhaal and Salim, the cast of Guy Ritchie's The Covenant also includes Emily Beecham (1899), Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Antony Starr (The Boys), Jason Wong (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Sean Sagar (The Gentlemen), Christian Ochoa (Halo) and Bobby Schofield (Don’t Breathe 2). Ritchie garners a writing credit on the movie, along with his The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man collaborators Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies.
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant Seems Like A Departure For Guy Ritchie
The big surprise here perhaps is the involvement of Ritchie, a director who is not necessarily known for the serious drama of the type being previewed, having made his name with gritty-but-fun action movies filled with snarky characters. Of course, Ritchie can also go intense when necessary, but the intensity of his movies is normally leavened by an outrageous sense of humor. Humor would be totally out of place in a film like Guy Ritchie's The Covenant however, as it appears to tackle very heady themes about honor and sacrifice, and the importance of paying debts. It will be fascinating to see if Ritchie’s turn toward the serious pays off and if it sets a trend for his future works. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is set for release on April 21, 2023.
Source: MGM