‘The Grey’
Directed by Joe Carnahan
With Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulrooney, Frank Grillo. Dallas
“The Grey” is a horror film without a Freddy Kruger, computer-generated monsters, aliens or supernatural, beings. This unsettling film has men dealing with genuine horrors that include a plane crash, subzero temperatures, icy rivers and blood thirsty arctic wolves. Who survives in such situations? What does it take to live through such rigors?
And who better to show us what it takes than Liam Neeson?
Ottway (Liam Neeson) works as a sniper who picks off wolves at an oil rig in Northern Alaska . “The Grey” opens with him ready to commit suicide. He has lost the woman with whom he is in love; he has nothing to live for.
But he is interrupted and next he is boarding a plane bound for home with a scruffy group of ex-cons and outcast workers from the rig. A terrifying scene follows as the plane crashes into the frigid arctic wilds. There remain seven survivors cowering under the protection of the fuselage. Ottway, who earlier was ready to take his own life, now marshals the men to take measures to save theirs. Not only are they threatened by bone-chilling cold and wind, hunger, and injury but also they now are in an area populated with packs of oversize, snarling wolves whose eyes glow into the night. And they have no weapons.
Director Joe Carnahan has made a film much deeper than a film about narrow escapes and death. His film looks at the circumstances that bring out the true selves of each of the men. After being confronted by the possibilities of dying from exposure, tumbling over a cliff, or being torn apart by wolves, these tough guys become reflective. They talk about their families back home. Each man has a story. “The Grey” is also about how various men struggle to survive while others give up.
Liam Neeson is in top form in “The Grey.” He is implacable, convincingly bonding the group of survivors. His Ottway is a mythic character.
“The Grey” reminds us that Mother Nature is a most powerful force, and not a necessarily benevolent one. It is man-versus-nature, and you know who usually wins. The viewer feels the relentless mixture of cold and terror. It never lets up.
“The Grey” is an unnerving survivalist epic with breathtaking cinematography. It is also an emotionally involving story that offers heart pounding thrills.
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