Review of The Grey (2012) by Edward C — 06 Nov 2013

Plot/Summary,In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements - and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt - before their time runs out.

My Review.

The Grey stars Liam Nesson vs wolves man that kick's ass. The Grey is the best new film of the season, an excruciatingly intense survival thriller confident enough to navigate into some fairly heady, existential territory on occasion. Director Joe Carnahan has made his most adult and uncompromising film since Narc, a gritty, macho genre movie that hearkens back to the simpler, yet more masculine era of filmmaking of the late '60s and '70s. Carnahan has explored male-bonding in most of his films, but never with more insight and honesty than in The Grey. Anchored by Neeson's rugged, yet vulnerable lead performance, the cast lends even more humanity and individuality to their roles than may have been evident on the page. Mulroney and Roberts are the Everymen, while Grillo plays the requisite alpha male hothead whose drive to survive causes him to challenge Ottway's natural leadership. All of them get their moments to shine and make you care about them. You feel every sub-zero degree of this frozen hell and every grueling, desperate step they take in deep, heavy snow as they try to run from the wolves. This had to be the most arduous shoot imaginable. But not everything in the film works. The depiction of the wolves themselves is hit and miss; the animatronic wolves look pretty fake when interwoven with shots of the real beasts. That bit of Hollywood artistry pulls you out of the reality of the scenes and often at precisely the wrong moments. The wolves may be shrouded in darkness, but the texture of their fake fur is a giveaway.