Your plane has crashed in the barren and arctic void of the Alaskan wilderness. You’ve also lucked into becoming instant intruders to an extremely territorial pack of wolves who will systematically hunt you and the rest of your fellow leftovers one by one until the survivor count reaches zero. Now you can only hope and pray that at least one of you has the particular set of skills needed to deal with such a predicament.
Oh thank god, Liam Neeson is on the flight.
In The Grey, Neeson is a hired gun, literally. John Ottway’s (Neeson) job is to use his rifle to keep down the wolf population around the inhabited areas of an oil drilling company in Alaska. It’s a very cold and lonely existence in a place that Ottway declares is for men who are not fit for society.
After the job’s completion, Ottway and the rest of the oil drilling team embark on a plane ride home only to crash into the Alaskan wilderness. The survivors now need to figure out how to endure the extreme climate, hunger, wolves, and even themselves.
Liam Neeson has carved out quite the niche for himself late in his career. Miles away from Oscar Schindler, the guy with special set of skills that’s going to save the day routine seems to surprisingly fit Neeson’s demeanor and acting quality like a glove. But The Grey may actually surprise its viewers. Sure, Neeson’s character is the go-to badass and only hope for the small group of survivors to make it out of their situation alive, but the journey that ensues follows anything but the typical Taken formula.
This film is actually a very deep and thawed out character piece. The personal life struggles and reflections of Ottway and the rest of the survivors end up taking center stage throughout the story, and the danger of the environment and the wolves end up being more of a plot device used to bring self-realizations to the forefront of the characters’ minds.
The Grey is definitely not the happy-go-lucky, beat ‘em-up, hoo-ray-for-the-hero type of film that Neeson has become synonymous with as of late, but it still contains enough scenes of that ilk to satisfy his legion of new action-hero sycophants and simultaneously adds a much needed, deeper and artistic performance to his now revamped career.
Story: 7.0
Acting: 9.0
Writing: 8.0
Captivation: 8.0
Replay Value: 5.5
Total = 7.5 out of 10
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