Film: The Grey
Starring: Liam Neeson
Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Survival films have always been a tricky genre. Not only must you showcase the terrifying isolation of being lost/trapped in a secluded area, you also have to keep things interesting for the audience. In the case of Joe Carnahan’s The Grey, both these needs are recognized, but the follow-through is not too smooth.

Liam Neeson stars as Ottway, a man working on a Northern Alaskan oil line as security who soon finds himself leading a group of frightened and injured refinery workers through a forest after their chartered aircraft crashes while returning them to civilization. His past is largely unknown, though a recurring monologue informs us know he’s depressed and missing a woman we assume to be his wife, but as with any film in the action genre, “he’s the best we got.”

Alongside Ottway are the surviving workers who, in all honesty, are nothing more than your a-typical cast of stereotyped side characters (the mean one, the funny one, the quiet one, etc.) offering folly and dumb questions to help Neeson shine as the all-knowing hero. They follow him without much complaint, do what he says with miniminal argument, and offer Carnahan plenty of opportunity to insert jokes, one-off lines of dialogue, and wolf attacks as needed. They exist to done away with and as long as you recognize that, you will be much more likely to enjoy their downfall.

The plot, the wolves, and especially the cinematography of The Grey offer an immediately appetizing sizzle, but the film struggles to stay afoot from a emotional standpoint and it slowly forces the feature to drag as our survivors spend more time talking about death than actually dying. Though they say a lot, and oftentimes are quite funny when attempting to be, the actual seriousness and/or complexity of the situation never seems to fully shake them. For Neeson, a hardened man who understands the monsters in the tree, this makes perfect sense, but for the men who have never been faced with the immediate threat of wolves ripping them apart, it does not.

If you can get past the emotional flaws of The Grey, which for most should not be an issue given the giant wolves running amuck, you will undoubtedly have a good time. That said, those hoping Neeson brings both his badass attitude and acting shops to this set would probably be much happier steering clear of the cinema. This is damn good January release, but a January release nonetheless. Approach with caution.

Review written by: James Shotwell (Follow him on Twitter)

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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