Hit or miss actor Liam Neeson (Taken, Unknown) strikes gold with Joe Carnahan’s (Narc, Smokin’ Aces) The Grey. This riveting survival adventure movie follows a group of oil riggers after their plane crashes in the remote northern Alaska wilderness. Ottway (Neeson) is a marksman for the company. His job is to shoot any wolf that comes near the workstation. He’s a depressed man, and his narration at the start of the film makes it seem like everybody who works at this isolated post is there because there is nothing better for them anywhere else. The bars are lively when the men aren’t at work. The small men work side by side with each other daily at this monotonous job but do not know each other at all. At least, that’s how Ottway sees it or perceives it to be.
Ottway and a group of 30-45 of his fellow workers crash down in the middle of nowhere while attempting to leave the station for leave. We know the flight isn’t going to be a pleasant one even before they leave. Despite their efforts, they can’t keep the ice from accumulating on the wings and other parts of the plane before taking off. A majority of the men do not survive the crash, but the eight who do know they are in extreme danger. They are hundreds of miles away from civilization, the temperature is below freezing, and all the ground is white as far as the eye can see.
On top of that, they are surrounded by hundreds of the biggest and most vicious wolves you have ever seen. If you ever wondered where the term wolfpack came from, it might have derived from seeing wolves behaving like this in their habitat. They work as a team, eight wolves pouncing on one man rather than eight wolves pouncing on eight men. The marksman Ottway knows their behaviors, their strengths, and their weaknesses. So he assumes the role of leader and leads the men away from the wreckage towards the close woods, thinking that the woods will provide more protection.
Like any movie featuring desperate men in desperate situations, there is some dissension with Ottway’s decisions, especially between Ottway and Diaz (Frank Grillo – Edge of Darkness, Warrior). There’s always got to be that one renegade in a movie like this who tries to pretend he is invincible, questions the leader’s decisions, and tries to go rogue. But Ottway’s got the support of the others most of the time. The only other star in the movie is Dermont Mulroney (Young Guns, My Best Friend’s Wedding), who plays Talget, a loyal and soft-spoken man who probably wouldn’t last a day without Ottway.
There wasn’t much I didn’t like about this movie. One thing I particularly liked will the wolves themselves. They were very lifelike. At times, the wolves proved more villainous than Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, or Hannibal Lecter could be on their worst days. A few scenes in this movie will cause you to jump in your seat. And when you see the wolves slowly creeping in, it’s as if you are part of the group, and they are sneaking up on you. The other thing I liked was that while on a 90-minute journey with these men, you never really got emotionally attached to any of them (backstories end). We didn’t know their backstories; these men worked together and were in the same terrible situation. Usually, if you aren’t emotionally connected with the characters, it’s a movie flaw. But this was one of the movies where I just took in the adventure, and whatever happened, happened, and I would be okay with that. The third and final thing I liked about this movie was that it was not based on a true story. My problem with a film like The Perfect Storm (which I loved) was that it was based on a true story, but who knows what happened to those guys. There is little to zero chance that they died the way the movie made them out to die. The Grey was out to entertain and not retell some story to draw in the people who like to see films based on true stories.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 9/10 (Neeson’s was good)
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 10/10 (I thought the Alaskan wilderness was beautiful. I felt like I was stranded in the snowy woods with the men)
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10 (plane wreck will pull you in)
Universal Relevance 7.5/10 (not so much other than the will most of us have to do anything to survive)
85%
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