Marketing can be vital to a film's success or failure. When a film is marketed as a certain type but then ends up being something different, it can truly upset an audience. That may be the case with "The Grey." Director Joe Carnahan's latest offering is a brutal and spiritual look at death and how people confront it. It is not for the faint of heart or a summer movie audience.
"The Grey" follows an Alaskan oil drilling team as they are about to head home. At the center of the crew is Liam Neeson's character, John Ottway. Ottway is essentially a hired hand who protects oilmen from wolves out in the tundra. He is a quiet and seemingly forlorn soul who distances himself from the rest of the team.
When the crew is headed home, a mechanical failure in the plane crash lands them in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. The remaining crewmembers are left to deal with the bitter cold and a pack of very angry wolves. It is explained by Ottway that these wolves are extremely territorial and will kill if they feel threatened. However, it is clear early on that the wolves are more or less based on aliens and monsters rather than real wolves.
For one thing, they are almost double the size of real Alaskan wolves. Another aspect that separates them from reality is how they are depicted. Carnahan takes a page out of Steven Spielberg's monster playbook and hardly shows them at all. When these creatures do pop up, they mean business. In fact, the howling of these creatures is in the film more than the creatures themselves. The howling serves as an unsettling ambient reminder that they are out there.
This is a brilliant tactic used by Carnahan to add tension to the bleak surroundings. The cinematography in this film is nothing less than breathtaking. Carnahan chooses to physically shoot the film up in Alaska and the result is real survival drama. It is a bleak looking film that is very reminiscent of John Carpenter's "The Thing."
The biggest strength of the film is that is does not go through the typical tropes of a survival film. The men are put up against the elements after the crash. However, "The Grey" is more philosophical than kinetic once the survival aspect kicks in. The film ends asking a lot of questions about death and how people approach it.
Helping to drive home these themes is a strong cast. At first the crew appears to be a collection of typical action film stereotypes. There is the questioning tough guy, the sensitive and spiritual guy and the loudmouth nobody can stand. Throughout the course of the film, these characters are fleshed out in a few powerful dialogue scenes.
That is not to say that the action takes a back seat. Although it is spaced out, when there is action it is frightening and edgy. One scene in particular that stands out is the plane crash. The camera is placed right in the middle of what is going on. The result is one of the most intense plane crashes ever put on film. \
In the end, "The Grey" is not for everyone. It takes the audience on a brutal tale of death and survival against all odds. This is not a film that will make people happy. However, it will have the audience thinking long after the credits have ended, which is the mark of any great film. It is early in 2012, but "The Grey" is the first great film of this year.
Rating: 4.5/5
