| Vidaview: Movie Review - “The Grey”: Face to Face with Death |
| Written by Alejandro A. Riera |
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Part of Neeson’s appeal is his no-nonsense approach: he takes these characters as seriously as he took the role of Schindler in “Schindler’s List” no matter how ludicrous the script. He gives them depth, gravitas, authority. And he can also have fun: just look at his impish cigar-chewing grin as Hannibal Smith in Joe Callahan’s “The A-Team” (one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures).
Neeson plays John Ottway, a sniper hired by the oil refineries near the Arctic Circle to protect their workers from wolf attacks. Through flashbacks we know he was once married and that whatever has separated him from his wife has made life unbearable for him. He comes close to committing suicide in the first few minutes of the film but changes his mind. Ottway and 30 other workers board a plane en route to Anchorage, Alaska, but the plane crashes on the way in a scene reminiscent of Robert Zemeckis’s “Cast Away.” But unlike that film, where we see the plane crash into the Pacific Ocean from the pilots’ cabin, Callahan never takes us out of the passengers’ cabin. We see, feel and hear the abrupt impact from the passengers’ point of view, the camera shaking, bouncing, turning upside down, the editing jagged, the sound breaking down into pieces, just like the plane’s fuselage. Only eight men survive the crash, one of them critically injured and whom Ottway gently guides to the after-life in a touching scene that sets “The Grey” apart from other man-versus-nature films. Stranded right in the middle of snowy nowhere, the now seven men not only have to deal with their own wounds and lack of resources but also with a pack of wolves keen on defending their territory and turning them into food. One of them makes the unfortunate mistake of taking a pee in the middle of the night and turns into a late night snack for the wolves. The survivors’ only chance for survival now is to leave the crash area immediately and make for the woods. Pursued by the growing pack, these six men, led by Ottway, must also deal with a massive snowstorm and with each other.
But it is Neeson, with his imposing presence, his lyrical Irish lilt and those sad, mournful eyes, who truly gives “The Grey” that emotional charge and the reason why the film works so damn well. Ottway may be the ultimate alpha male it he is also a weary one, with a lot of emotional baggage and one big grudge against the world and God. In other words, a role tailor made for Neeson, the unlikeliest and best action movie star. One word of advice: don’t make the same mistake I made and leave before the credits. There is one more shot after the credits that according to some fellow critics is worth staying for. Alejandro A. Riera writes about culture (Latino and non-Latino alike) in his blog culturebodega.wordpress.com
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January 27, 2012, 8:26am CST (“The Grey”: Face to Face with Death) Liam Neeson’s slow transformation into a thinking man’s action hero started a long time ago in a galaxy not so far away. In fact, it started with his very first film, John Boorman’s “Excalibur” (1981) where he played Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. He later played the scientist turned into a disfigured avenging angel in Sam Raimi’s “Darkman” (1990) and the dashing Scottish rebel Rob Roy in the 1995 film of the same name. But it was as Jedi Knight Qui Gon-Jin in the god-awful “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) that finally turned him into a dependable, charismatic action star. So this whole notion that Neeson has unpredictably become one of today’s top action movie stars after the box-office success of “Taken” is, quite frankly, poppycock. He’s always been a dependable, versatile actor regardless of genre. It’s just that nobody was honestly paying any attention.
But there is something different going on behind Neeson’s rough façade in “The Grey,” his latest collaboration with Callahan. There is in his performance a melancholy, an unbearable sadness, a sense that life is no longer worth living. But there’s also strength, defiance, a willingness to meet death eye to eye, even if death comes dressed up as a pack of wolves. It’s not hard to think that he is tapping into his own personal experiences surrounding the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson almost three years ago in a ski slope in Canada to shape this role.
Unlike his previous hyperactive and hyperventilating work on “Smokin’ Aces” and “The A-Team,” Carnahan opts for a minimalist approach, letting the environment and the characters dictate the film’s rhythm and mood. Carnahan’s and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers’ script, based on Mackenzie Jeffers’ story “Ghost Walker” has at times a certain “Iron John” feel to it, particularly in a scene where our survivors open up to each other around a campfire. And yet, it works. This story about men tested by the elements never hits a false note thanks in great part to its outstanding cast, especially Frank Grillo as the insecure macho man Diaz and Dermot Mulroney as family man Talget. Grillo’s final scene is full of beauty, proof that Carnahan is capable of so much more than quick editing braggadocio. In fact, the entire film, as shot by Masanobu Takayanagi with British Columbia standing in for the Alaskan wilderness, is beautiful, capturing the brutal awesomeness of a territory that has yet to be fully tamed. Even the action sequences —short, brutal, unexpected— border on the poetic.
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