The Grey (2012) Review

Man vs. nature. There has been several of these type of films as I am sure you are aware. The films present a major fear of humans. How does one survive when they are lost in the wilderness going up against the animals that live full-time in that wilderness? The Grey exploits that fear in a satisfying albeit predictable way.

John Ottway (Liam Neeson) is a member of an oil drilling team based in Alaska. His job is to kill wolves that surround and threaten the team. On his last day he writes a letter to his wife and walks out into the woods to commit suicide. However while kneeling in the snow with his rifle in his mouth he hears a wolf howl which stops him. Upon completion of the job the team and Ottway board a plane headed for home. The plane is unable to withstand the power of a blizzard and crashes in a barren wasteland killing all but Ottway and seven of the oil-drillers. Ottway immediately assumes control of the group whose initial plan is to stay with the destroyed remnants of the plane but upon realizing they are in a wolf pack's territory (especially after one member is torn apart by the wolves in the middle of the night) the team decides that it is better to walk south in the hope of being rescued or finding civilization. The wolves continue to hunt the men on their journey and, as you would expect, one by one the men are killed by the cold, wolves, trees etc.

The film unfortunately is far too predictable at times to really feel as original as I wanted it to feel. I was literally able to sit in the theater and know who would be killed next and/or how they would be killed and so the film follows a formula and plays it safe. It doesn't shock or frighten nearly as much as it should when one factors in the harsh environment the fortunately fully fleshed out characters are in.

Previously I mentioned the film's satisfying use of the fear the characters have. It might seem as though I am contradicting myself but the truth is that half the film is predictable while the other half is a lean forward in your seat type of film. The scenes in which the characters are surrounded by the wolves or face to face with them are among some of the most frightening and intense scenes in the film. Dracula's opinion of their musical prowess comes to mind in several scenes. I only wish the filmmakers had focused more on the eyes of the wolves which are the feature that an audience relates to most in an animal onscreen. There are issues with the CGI animation of the wolves but to be fair Hollywood has always had issues with the animation of wolves and indeed the animation of creatures with fur. The wolves lack weight when running or attacking and their size in the film is excessive and visibly surpasses the average wolf size while some of their hunting behavior is inaccurate.

The trivia section of imdb for the film mentions that the atrocious Bradley Cooper was initially cast in Liam Neeson's role and all I can be is thankful for the change because Neeson's performance is one his better. As my friend remarked after the film's credits, "when I grow up I want to be Liam Neeson."

An interesting take for the film's cinematography is to create it in a coherent style with the film's title. There is a lot of attention obviously given to the color palette and style of the shots (although I wish there weren't so many establishing shots of the snow covered mountains). Everything is either gray, white or black which creates a feeling of dreariness to the film.

An overall fear-provoking and intense picture that walks a balance and unfortunately sometimes falls off into predictable and pointlessness.

★★★