“The Grey” is amazing. Not necessarily for what you would think.
In “The Grey” Alaskan oil workers survive a horrendous airplane crash on route to Anchorage. They are hunted down by ferocious Grey wolves. According to Liam Neeson’s Ottway the Greys’ territory covers 300 miles, and the den’s kill radius is 30 miles. They are on their turf. Director and Writer Joe Carnahan’s vision is stark and emotionally haunting. Neeson plays Ottway, who is an expert marksman who kills wolves threatening Alaskan oil pipeline workers. Neeson embodies a sad gravitas in Ottway. In the opening scene, we get that he is tortured by dreams of his late wife, beautiful and serene Anne Openshaw. He composes a letter to her. Ottway may suffer clinical depression which culminates in an aborted tragic act. Following the visually dramatic crash, Ottway (Neeson) stares into the eyes of a passenger with bleeding abdomen, and says, “You are going to die.” He calmly guides him through this. “The Grey” is about how each of us faces death. “The Grey” is poignantly profound and sublime.
Carnahan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers’s screenplay based on Jeffers’s short story “Ghost Walker” is surprising in narrative and catharsis. Director Carnahan creates the existential arctic wasteland and the paradox of man as prey. Masanobu Takayanagai’s cinematography is haunting—seeing the wolves’ eyes glowing against the darkness and snow is terrifying and stunning. There is a visceral sense of danger in the icy air that fuels “The Grey”. Ottway leads the group to the forest ridgeline as a means to their salvation. Frank Grillo is gritty as a fierce poser. Dermot Mulroney is inspired as dedicated father Talget. Dallas Roberts is solid support as sensible Hendrick.
Liam Neeson is awesome. “The Grey” is powerful, because of him. As Ottway, he is a compassionate broken hero journeying through redemption. Neeson is so convincing as a man taking action in the face of his own grave fear. Neeson has an amazing scene where Ottway, recalls the poem of his drunk and abusive father, “Into the fray Live and die on this day.” Neeson captures the conflicting toil of a man, who had little to live for now fighting to survive and protect the lives of others. He is powerful. In context this is somberly poetic; “The Grey” is about how each of us reconciles death. T.S. Eliot wrote: “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.” With inspired contrast Neeson and Carnahan in “The Grey” the hero never folds and fights on.
“The Grey” is provocative and subtly profound.
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