The Grey [DVD]

I have seen the plot before and it is rare that it works. And when I heard there would be CGI Wolves, I was hesitant to say the least.

However, given the right director, authentic location shooting, powerhouse performances and the IMPLIED threat of a merciless predator, this type of film can work. Thankfully, this is the case with 'The Grey'.

So the plot is really nothing new. An oil drilling team crashes in Alaska and must face a pack of territorial wolves as they struggle to make their way through and survive. So far, so simple. But the director, Joe Carnahan (showing us again the visual gritty panache and character development he revealed with subtlety in 'Narc' and less so in 'The A Team') uses the dire circumstances of his protagonists as a means to explore the emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences of confronting their eventual demise.

Purists and animal lovers will abhor the role of the wolves. They seem DELIBERATELY cruel in their hunt of the survivors of the plane crash. Both sentient and cognitive, they demonstrate a willingness to hunt the humans down one by one as if they have made a plan and are determined to execute it with ruthless efficiency. Even though cases of wolf attacks on humans are quiet rare, the movie suggests that should anyone find themselves in the middle of wolf territory, or indeed a wolf den, then ALL bets are off.

In fending off the wolf attacks, these already rough-hewn oil refinery workers have to revert back to their primitive selves and in so doing reveal their insecurities, their fears and their failures. So used to the hard but confined and secure world afforded by their petroleum employers, the disparate group of men must band together in the beautiful but desolate and unforgiving Alaskan wilderness, all the while being pursued AND devoured by seemingly ungodly assailants.

All the performances are uniformly excellent, with the standout portrayal belonging to Liam Neeson. Both reluctant action man and damaged victim, his introspective, emotionally scarred and all too vulnerable performance is heartbreaking to watch, particularly given the tragic death of his real life wife, actress Natasha Richardson, a year before filming began. He relentlessly drives the film to it's ambiguous conclusion, thus allowing you to forgive it's more unlikely moments while still celebrating the human tenacity to simply 'carry on' in the face of almost certain death. The fact his performance was overlooked at The Oscars is more than reason enough to purchase this DVD.

At least an 8 out of 10. Buy it and enjoy.

Okay, so I see that quite a lot of people are not getting what this film is about.
Yes, it's a survival movie, no, it's not supposed to be a horror or an action flick,
though we are given plenty of action here.
Yes, the plot is predictable, yes the CGI wolves are unconvincing to say the least, though they fare far better than other recent movies which fobbed us off with a far worse version...ahem...I reveal no names!

This movie is saved by the beautiful scenery, and the way in which each shot is designed to take your breath away. It is saved by the psychological game it plays with you. It gets you tense from the beginning, and keeps you that way until the end. It is almost as though you are out in that wilderness along with them, and despite the roughness and crudeness of some of the men - you REALLY want them all to survive.
This movie makes your heart thump in your chest and want to squeeze your eyes shut when Neeson and the gang take a risk. The uncertainty is what makes this movie terrifying, and the vastness and seeming hopelessness of the situation. It is the emotion and the mindsets of the men that drives the story, THAT is what it is about.
Liam Neeson gives a very powerful performance, and so do some of the other characters.
Okay, I was a little disappointed with the ending, and I got a little bored of the flashback scenes, but this is a film that grabbed my attention and held it, and if you go into this with your eyes open,and just let the journey take you, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

A terrific film that is certainly worth your while viewing. I'm not a great Liam Neeson fan, and if anything the fact that he was starring in this was a disincentive for me to watch as I had the impression this might have been a plodding action movie vehicle for an established star content to coast along and collect the cheques. How wrong I was. Neeson gives the best performance I've seen him give surrounded by a uniformly excellent supporting cast in this part-thriller, part meditation on grief, loss, failure and the struggle to survive. As a thriller it succeeds brilliantly. As a human drama/ tragedy there are deeply moving scenes that will surely linger in the memory : Ottway's comforting a dying man and later his crying out to heaven, Diaz's final goodbye. I think this is probably a man's film for men, and says more about what it is to be a man specifically, and secondarily what it is to be human. But I was struck that whilst being a film about men, the mens reminiscences together, and the photos Ottway retrieves from their wallets, indicate a truth that men's most complete happiness in this world resides in their relationship with women and in having children, and that the greatest pain that men experience is to be without either.

With regard to Ottway's flashbacks/visions of his wife, pay attention to the end. All is not as it seems.