The Grey

I would classify The Grey as a very near miss. That said, I would agree there is a lot to recommend about it. The movie is a well made "man vs. nature" story, with a strong lead performance by Liam Neeson, and some stand-out individual moments throughout. I think that there was my problem. The movie worked only in parts for me. The rest, I got a little restless. You may feel differently about it. The movie's already racking up some very good word of mouth. I can agree up to a point, but not enough to fully get behind it.

Based on the short story "Ghost Walker" by Ian Mackenzie Jeffries (who co-wrote the script along with director Joe Carnahan), the movie takes us to a frigid Alaskan wasteland, where some of the worst people society has to offer ("men not fit to live among men", they're described in a melodramatic voice over by the main character) have found work as oil pipeline workers at the very end of the world. Our focus is John Ottway who, as played by Neeson, is a rugged man with a painful past concerning a woman (more on that later), and a skill for sharpshooting. His job on the oil field is to kill any wolves that may try to attack any of the workers out on the vast frozen land. We don't know much about John, other than he is haunted by the memories of a woman he once loved. The movie is sort of intentionally vague, but I got the impression that the woman had died somehow. Whatever happened in John's past, it's painful enough that in one of his early scenes, he's sticking the barrel of his shotgun in his mouth, and contemplating pulling the trigger. Only the sound of wolves howling in the distance bring him back to reality, and help him realize he still has more to do in this life.

The wolves are somewhat invisible predators, always lurking just out of sight, sometimes seen only as glowing yellow eyes in the night. When they are off in the distance and stalking the human characters, they are effectively chilling. It's when they come up close that the movie falters a little. Whenever the wolves attack, they turn into CG or animatronic creations, losing much of their mystery. It doesn't help that whenever this movie depicts a wolf attack, it does so in such a way as to suggest a slasher movie, with the wolf or wolves suddenly leaping out of nowhere, and then a bunch of tight cuts while the camera violently shakes and sputters to represent a struggle. At times, it almost looks like a wolf skin rug is being shaken about in front of the camera, while an actor rolls around and screams incoherently. It's disappointing to say the least, especially since the movie does such a good job of creating mounting tension with the wolves, only to give us the same old thing when they get up close to their victims.

Despite his skill and expertise in dealing with these predators, John finds himself helpless, along with a small handful of survivors, when a plane carrying them home crashes in the middle of the frozen wasteland. With very little chance of them being discovered, John immediately sets about taking charge of the frightened and wounded men, barking out orders to create shelter, and trying to keep them alive from the elements, and the wolves that seem to constantly be watching the party from the distance. The Grey is not really big on characterization. Aside from a scene late in the film where John is looking at the wallets of some of the other survivors, learning about their lives back home through their photos, we don't learn much about the group of men who survive the plane crash, only to find themselves facing an even bigger test of survival.

Some of the survival stuff is interesting, and there are some pretty tense moments, such as when the men have to cross over a wide chasm to the other side. My problem is that a predictable pattern eventually settles in. The men fight and argue amongst themselves, the wolves attack, the men band together, one of the men inevitably gets picked off, and the survivors carry on. The movie repeats this simple formula with little alteration. Eventually, we begin to anticipate the wolf attacks, even the "surprise" ones that seem like they were lifted out of a bad horror movie. I found that I was constantly at war with myself while I was watching the movie. The stuff that was good about the movie was so good, I wanted to forgive the flaws. But, I just couldn't get over the predictable pattern, nor the fact that many of the characters seemed to exist simply so they could be killed off in the first place.

And yet, I found a lot to like here, as well. I enjoyed Neeson's performance as John, and I liked the way the character finds himself facing mounting odds and guilt over not being able to protect certain people, yet still finds different ways to carry on. The movie also has a very harsh and grim quality that I think worked very well for this particular story. John and the other survivors of the crash know that they are facing a doomed situation, and so they sometimes turn to dark humor or acts of violence in order to keep themselves strong. (One of the men cuts the head off of a dead wolf, and throws it off into the surrounding woods, hoping the other wolves will find it.) The movie is filled with a lot of good individual moments that are surrounded by stretches that are either repetitive, or don't work as well as they should, such as the wolf attacks.

The Grey manages to end on a somewhat ambiguous note, that I found intriguing, though many I fear will think is abrupt or anticlimactic. For those people, I suggest a bit of patience. Just sit through the end credits, and you'll get the answers you seek. Personally, I would have been fine with the more open ending, but it's nice that the after credit scene is there for those who need it. This is a very well done movie that I really tried my hardest to embrace completely. There were just too many nagging doubts in my mind, most of them swirling around the screenplay.

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