The Grey – Movie Review

The Grey – Movie Review

By day Ottway (Liam Neeson) guards the men working on an Alaskan oil pipeline, picking off the man-hunting wolves that occasionally lunge at his co-workers. At night he sticks his gun in his mouth and thinks “I’ve stopped doing this world any real good”.
Flashbacks to a woman clearly no longer in his life (“I’ve lost you and I can’t get you back”) hint at why it all seems so pointless; what’s more of a mystery early on is what exactly it is that keeps him going.

So when the plane he and a group of workers are taking back to civilisation crashes, for a moment it looks like the choice to live or die might be made for him. Surprisingly, he’s not alone in surviving the crash, though for at least one man his survival
time is counted in minutes. Despite the freezing cold and snow it seems they might survive by sheltering in the wreckage – and then the wolves arrive. They’re not afraid of the men, and they’ll just walk up and tear them to shreds the second their guard drops.

The big question is, if their crash site is on the fringe of the wolves’ 200 mile territory then maybe a hike to the nearby forest will be enough to get the survivors to safety. If they’ve crashed in the middle of the wolves’ turf, then nothing they do will
stop the man-eaters from trying to kill them all. So they set off across the frozen wasteland, increasingly aware that every step could be their last…

Despite a marketing push that sells this film as “Liam Neeson versus wolves” – and really, who in their right mind wouldn’t want to watch two hours of that – The Grey turns out to be a film about a group of men coming to terms with death. Sometimes death
is sudden; sometimes you can see your death coming; sometimes you’re alone; and sometimes, you have people to guide you in your final moments. Generally speaking though, death is never pleasant.

The stripped back nature of the men’s plight leaves The Grey open to all manner of metaphorical readings. Is it a tale of man’s hubris in thinking he can defeat nature? Is it a metaphor for America’s current overseas wars, with the wolves the insurgents
and the oil workers the troops who find themselves in a situation they are unable control? Or, is The Grey a look at one man’s struggle to find a path between the harshness of the world and the tenderness in his heart? The film gives no clear answers, but
nor should it.

Fortunately for those lured in by the marketing, there’s still a fair amount of action. Plane crash sequences are always an opportunity for directors to pull out all the stops, Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team) doesn’t disappoint and a particularly
authentic barrage of ice and snow genuinely feels like it’s coming off the screen. Like most “lost in the wilderness” films, the landscape here is at least as much of a threat as the creatures that live in it, and if you’re at all worried about heights there’s
one sequence you’re not going to enjoy in the slightest.

There’s a great cast buried under all those rags and facial hair (including a nearly unrecognisable Dermot Mulroney) and Frank Grillo stands out as an over-aggressive individual who always wants to do things his way. But this is Neeson’s film all the way,
and the mix of his earlier serious work with his current run of all-action adventures results in what is his easily his best performance in a long time. The Grey isn’t a perfect film but Neeson’s performance comes close. It’s one that’ll stay with you long
after the final credits roll.

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Posted by Fahad Zafar on Feb 25 2012. Filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry