The Grey. I
am truly shocked at how much I liked this film. From the marketing it seems
like a macho film with Liam Neeson beating the crap out of wolves, but that
honestly doesn’t do the film very much justice at all. I wouldn’t even call
this an action movie, its surprisingly artsy and full of human drama. The film
follow seven survivors from a plane crash in the middle of Alaskan wilderness,
how find them selves chased by wolves as they have invaded their territory.
From the simple synopsis the film sounds like a very simple survival thriller,
but you might find yourself to be disappointed if that’s what you expect from
the movie. Don’t get me wrong, there is action and the film is extremely
suspenseful, but the focus ends up being elsewhere. The story told is one of
the meaning of life, how in the end our struggle to make it through life may
not matter anymore, but the struggle we made to get there is what really
matters. It was incredibly fresh to have a film like this that in the end
actually had a lot to say about life in general, rather then just our desire to
survive.
From the
first minute of the film you get a sense that there is a lot of depth in Ottway
(Neeson) and those first scenes sucked me in instantly as they contained some
really dark stuff I wasn’t prepared for. We instantly sympathize with Ottway,
cause he is such destroyed and depressed guy and you really feel for him. The
narration from Neeson in the opening scenes also really worked and I´m not a
huge fan of narration, but it worked here. Throughout the movie we get several
great character moments for Ottway, all the way up until the final scene where
finally get the full picture of Ottway and what has happened in his past and
made him the man he is. The final scene was one of the most emotionally
riveting scenes I have seen in quite some time, it really was impossible to
take your eyes of the screen, as it was for most of the movie. Liam Neeson
really gives an amazing performance, one that might be one of the best of the
year, and while he is still a 60-year old action hero here, he brings so much
emotion into his character. Personally I would say he is good enough for an
Oscar nomination even though it is highly unlikely that he will get one.
At first
all the supporting cast seemed very clichéd, but after a while they started
opening themselves in conversations around the bon-fire and by the end of the
film I really felt for each and everyone of them, even the ones I started of
not liking, and it was so great that all them got some character depth which is
rare for these kinds of films. For the most part all the actors did a good job
though a few of the very minor characters had some bad acting, but that was
very minor.
I have to
say I was surprised at how well directed the film was considering his last film
was the A-Team, which I thought was a
massive bore. Joe Carnahan does such a great job of building suspense and
making the film very moody at the same time. During the film I actually started
freezing just because of how cold it looked and I really felt like I was there
with them. Now one thing that has to be mentioned is the plane crash, don’t
watch this film if you are scared of flying, because this film isn’t exactly
going to help that. The plane crash scene in here, is one of the most
terrifying and intense scenes I have ever scene. The scene is so intense I
truly believe it can cause people to be scared of flying. It was a perfectly
made scene, with everything from directing to editing to sound mixing to
cinematography working perfectly together.
I hear
people complaining about the film saying the wolves behaviour isn’t realistic
because wolves are scared of men. Well this
is true in most cases however the are cases where wolf packs have attacked and
killed people if provoked and this is just one of those cases, besides that’s not
really what the film is about. This is probably one of the best man vs. nature
films I have ever seen because of the fact that it presents itself as a big
metaphor. Neesons performance is incredibly touching and he really brings this
interesting character to life. Joe Carnahan has crafted a brilliant filmed with
a great score and great cinematography and one that really shouldn’t be
dismissed as just another action film.
4.5/5
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