REVIEW: The Grey

 There are some spoilers in this review.

PLOT: In Alaska, an oil drilling team struggle to survive the elements and a pack of wolves after a plane crash strands them in the wild.


THE GOOD: Score. Although the score for The Grey is simple, I thought it was well-composed. Marc Streitenfeld seems to be a favorite with Tony and Ridley Scott, who produced this film. Streitenfeld is writing the score for Ridley's upcoming prequel to the Alien universe, Prometheus.

Theme. There are two running themes in this movie. One is about survival and the other is about spirituality. The lead character of Ottway, played by Liam Neeson, is a mysterious man from the start. One of the survivors prays over the victims of the plane crash and Ottway just stands there. He doesn't start walking off, yet he doesn't exactly join in the circle around the crash site. Perhaps he doesn't know what to believe in at this point. In a later scene after a tragic moment, Neeson's character is seen screaming up towards the sky at God, demanding help. When no response is given, he says something along the lines of "F*ck it... I'll do it myself." This is an understandable reaction that would probably resonate with most people. Where is God when you most need him? But there is a redeeming moment within the last couple minutes of the film where Neeson's character gets down in his knees in a prayer-like position and looks through the collected wallets of the deceased. After he observes the drivers licenses and personal photographs of the men who have been lost, he places the closed wallets on the ground before adding his own. And if you look carefully at that arrangement, you might notice that they form a cross. Unless you're just a super big hardcore atheist, then you'll just see a lowercase T.

Ottway: "Now I'll never get my SkyMall order."

THE BAD: Characters. The way writers Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers toy with your emotions was not a fun experience. There is little character development in this film. Even the lead character of Ottway doesn't really have too much of a back story. It was initially kind of interesting and then nothing for an hour and 45 minutes and then the big reveal is, well... again, I feel like I had been played. You can tell that each of the supporting characters have stories to tell also, but you don't really get to know them until 2-3 minutes before their demise. Even one man, who spoke of how he loved when his daughter would dangle her long hair over his face to tickle him, had little to share with us. I feel like the writers were attempting to tug on our heartstrings to make us feel some type of connection with these men, but I was quite turned off. You could tell exactly when each one was going to perish. And the only person who seemed to have convincing monologues was Liam Neeson. Probably because his character had a bit more substance than the rest, or maybe because he's a more talented actor, but I'm sure part of it was adding in the great score for his stories.

Plot holes. I'm not going to start pretending like I'm a wolf expert or anything, but it was hard for me to believe that a giant pack of wolves wouldn't just attack those men. Especially when the group's numbers were dwindled down to the few. I've seen videos of dogs at shelters with more gusto than those weak-ass wolves.

The survivors would have had much better luck if they were vampires. Go Team Liam!

Chaos cinema. I'm going to start using a term more often in my reviews that I've been searching for for a long time: Chaos cinema. In a two-part online video essay, Matthias Stork coins the term that examines the extreme aesthetic principles of 21st century action films. While I understand his point, and agree with it to a certain aspect, I don't think we're in deep trouble yet. I've always described this quality as "shaky cam," which is a very direct way of describing what I'm talking about. It's a quality that plagued the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for me, and I even mentioned it in my review for another Liam Neeson film that I actually enjoyed, Taken. The Grey's use of chaos cinema is not lengthy, but it is the only way director Joe Carnahan decides to show the killing scenes. Blurred shots of fur, blood, and loud sound effects of wolves growling is how the filmmaker decides to convince us of the attacks. It's unintelligible and lazy.

Jump scares. Admittedly, there was one really good one that I thought was quite effective. It got me so good that a jumped in my seat higher than ever before. But the film relies too heavily on this technique and, again, I feel like I'm just being manipulated.


THE END: The Grey is a completely forgettable movie for me. If you want to see people get picked off one-by-one and nothing more, than you'll probably like this movie. There's not much more substance to it other than a spiritual message that never quite hits a clear message. When the movie tries to be profound, it comes off as pretentious and a waste of time. It's a mask to show a overall very basic survival tale. Survival tales have been told in more creative and thought-provoking ways. Skip this one. You won't be missing a single thing.


DISCUSS: What did you think of The Grey? What did you think of the spiritual message in the film? How would you compare this film to other survival pictures? What was your least favorite aspect of this movie?

In this movie, Liam Neeson's character boxes wolves with a knife and broken bottles taped to his hands. In his next film, Neeson will be hitting hyenas with a tire iron.