Written by: Joe Carnahan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers (based on Jeffers' short story "Ghost Walker")
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Having been born and raised in Minnesota, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I hate winters. I've never enjoyed the season (if it were up to me, the entire year would be the month of May), and despite the state being an obvious hotspot for ice fishing, hockey, snowmobiling, and the like, I've always found the heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures to not being worth the trouble.
Of course, my bitching isn't exactly comparable to the troubles of the peoples of the state of Alaska. Despite having an incredibly beautiful landscape and being an important hotbed of natural resources for the country, I just could not see myself living there. After all, the state has a scant population (the fourth lowest in the United States), it's too vast and barren, the temperatures and snowstorms probably make Minnesota's winter feel like summertime in the Mojave Desert, and the high numbers of natural predators make getting lost in the wilderness very low on my list of priorities.
So not surprisingly, a good chunk of jobs in the state are wrought with more dangers than those in the continental U.S. face, especially when the majority of industries make camp in the heart of the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing how to survive is paramount, but what happens when nature sucks you away from your comfort zone and into a cold abyss where you no longer have the predatorial advantage?
The struggle against the harsh mistress of nature and bringing the beast out of the man in order to survive are the themes that permeate director Joe Carnahan's surprisingly good and philosophically complex survival thriller The Grey.
John Ottway (Liam Neeson) is a sniper who defends an Alaskan oil drilling ensemble by killing any grey wolves that approach the area, but despite being good at what he does, John is secretly despairing over his wife Ana (Anne Openshaw) leaving him. Writing a letter to her that he plans on taking his own life, he nearly does so on the last night of the drilling, but is stopped by the faraway howl of a wolf.
Ottway ends up boarding a plane with the men from the job. However, a sudden snowstorm causes the plane to crash in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Ottway is then stranded along with the only survivors: Hendrick (Dallas Roberts), Flannery (Joe Anderson), Burke (Nonso Anozie), Lewenden (James Badge Dale), Talget (Dermot Mulroney), and ex-con Diaz (Frank Grillo). Lacking any means of calling for help, the men immediately set up camp in the forest and plot their survival strategy.
Unfortunately, the extreme cold isn't the only danger they face, when they soon realize that they're being stalked by a pack of wolves. Armed with only their wits and scant resources, Ottway and his group must do what they can to live and escape.
Let me disclose the fact that I was rather excited to see this movie upon first seeing the previews, if for one reason and one reason only:
Liam Nesson fighting goddamn wolves.
Despite having a long, diverse, and well-respected acting career, the Oscar-nominated Irishman has apparently been reinventing himself for the last few years as a middle-aged action star whose characters have only been interested in kicking ass, taking names, and whatever else was in between. And for the most part, I really dug it. With his steely gaze, calm demeanor, and authoritative personality, Neeson has made for a convincing movie badass. So when I saw trailers with Neeson charging at a bloodthirsty wolf? Yeah, I was already sold.
And this is despite my lack of enthusiasm for the film's director Joe Carnahan. With the exception of his terrific 2002 crime thriller Narc, the rest of his directorial output has ranged from mediocre (The A-Team, which also starred Neeson) to awful (Smokin' Aces). Of course, it might be unfair to judge his skills seeing how he's only helmed a handful of films thus far, but I was still wary nonetheless this time around.
But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that The Grey was a cut above the everyday survival thrillers, and not because of a lack of brutal action and suspense, but rather the unusual addition of human emotion, a main character that you actually care about, and a somber philosophical edge that I didn't see coming.
Here, Carnahan crafts the survivors as a bunch of tough guys who are only tough on the outside: on the inside, they're terrified. Being caught in the precarious maw of nature tears away the teams' rough exterior to expose the raw essence of their fear, how much they truly value their lives, and their inner spiritual discord.
Indeed, Neeson's character serves as the film's existential sounding board. Traumatized by his wife leaving him and the cold, emotionless nature of his profession, Ottway explores the concepts of a merciful God (or the very lack of one), the point of our existence, and whether or not we're really the hot shit that we homo sapiens believe ourselves to be.
And while the chase scenes and wolf attacks are appropriately frightening and intense, there's no sense of cheap horror-movie exploitation during the death scenes. They may be bloody and vicious, but each kill (especially in the film's last half hour) is extremely emotional and even heartbreaking to watch. The supporting characters aren't that fleshed-out (with the slight exception of Grillo's character), but watching these scared and helpless men die-- especially when the last things they imagine are their families-- add much-needed depth to the severity of what the film's trying to convey.
But when it all boils down to Neeson's character, The Grey does a terrific job crafting a character whose original desire for death turns to a warrior's instinct to survive when he realizes that he's as much a force of nature as the forces that oppose him, even after losing all faith that God has abandoned him.
And it's here where the film polarizes me. As much as I appreciated the final product, I really wish the filmmakers would have gone a bit further in forcing Neeson's character becoming more animalistic in his desperate desire to survive, where the reptilian section of the brain takes over completely and reduces man to his baser evolutionary instincts. The idea of the monster within the man-- even a good man-- has always fascinated me, and I was disappointed that Carnahan didn't go a step further, especially since the film's ending makes this squelched opportunity even more frustrating.
Nonetheless, The Grey is still a well-executed thriller that makes damn good use of chillingly gorgeous cinematography, a sad yet ambient score by Marc Streitenfeld, an encouraging sense of mature direction by Carnahan, and a terrific lead performance from Neeson. It may not edge me any closer to moving to the Land of the Midnight Sun (or even a vacation, for that matter), but it's a fine entry in the resume of a filmmaker whose future output will hopefully go on to take note of what worked so well this time around.
Letter Grade: "B"
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