The Grey-2012
In the last few years, Liam Neeson has gone from introspective, thoughtful dramatic actor to guaranteed badass. Even when he played the main villain in Batman Begins, he was more of a thinking man's enemy, not the kind to go into a fight, guns blazing. Same goes with his role as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. But when Neeson took the lead role in 2008's Taken, it's like something snapped in him. Since then, he has starred in Clash of the Titans, The A-Team and Unknown. There have been the scattered roles where he hides his inner beast, like After.Life and Chloe, but these have clearly been overshadowed by his darker persona. What is great about his newest film The Grey is that it combines The Two Neesons into an effective character stuck in the snow-covered terrain of uninhabited Alaska.
Neeson is Ottway, an oil man in Alaska who desperately wants to be back with his wife. On a flight with his fellow oil workers back to the mainland, they crash and are forced to fight not only the fact that they are completely alone, but also are forced to fight nature as constant snow is likely to kill them all. Oh, and I did I mention wolves? Yeah there are wolves, and they are slowly picking off the few survivors.
The Grey occasionally deals with the same issues that many "stranded" films have to, wherein a newly formed leader has to compete for control from a competitor that is borderline insane. But once the wolves pick off the bad seeds, the film really gets going, as Ottway tries to lead the survivors to safety and to fight back against the wolves.
For what The Grey is advertised as, the film is pleasantly light on the action, but instead decides to deal with the inner struggles of these men willing to go to cold, dark areas of the world just to make their paycheck. But of course the real stand out here is Neeson, who plays helplessly depressed beautifully. Yes, he wants to get out and yes, he wants to help these men survive, but he is a man who has nothing to lose and doesn't truly care whether he lives or dies. In fact you could argue that the only reason he survives through wolf attacks and bitter cold is just to feel something more than the heartbreak he feels inside. Neeson gives an incredible performance near the beginning of the film, where he has a gun pointed at the base of his head, ready to give everything up. He is a man ready for the end and Neeson's eyes alone give off a hopelessness that says even though this is the beginning of the film, he may just blow his brains out.
The Grey is less about this group of men's struggle to survive, but more about the fear of being alone. The isolation these men encounter is equal to their internal fear of not having anyone else. These men are in the middle of nowhere, even before they crash, and they realize it. Most of them fight for something they have left behind, but Ottway fights just for the hell of it.
The Grey's emotional power makes it more than what it looks like on the surface, thankfully. The film does get close to cheesy emotional sentimentality and does wander into scenarios we've seen many times before, but the performances here are what really shine out and makes The Grey not just a a stranded survivors film.
Rating: B
Neeson is Ottway, an oil man in Alaska who desperately wants to be back with his wife. On a flight with his fellow oil workers back to the mainland, they crash and are forced to fight not only the fact that they are completely alone, but also are forced to fight nature as constant snow is likely to kill them all. Oh, and I did I mention wolves? Yeah there are wolves, and they are slowly picking off the few survivors.
The Grey occasionally deals with the same issues that many "stranded" films have to, wherein a newly formed leader has to compete for control from a competitor that is borderline insane. But once the wolves pick off the bad seeds, the film really gets going, as Ottway tries to lead the survivors to safety and to fight back against the wolves.
For what The Grey is advertised as, the film is pleasantly light on the action, but instead decides to deal with the inner struggles of these men willing to go to cold, dark areas of the world just to make their paycheck. But of course the real stand out here is Neeson, who plays helplessly depressed beautifully. Yes, he wants to get out and yes, he wants to help these men survive, but he is a man who has nothing to lose and doesn't truly care whether he lives or dies. In fact you could argue that the only reason he survives through wolf attacks and bitter cold is just to feel something more than the heartbreak he feels inside. Neeson gives an incredible performance near the beginning of the film, where he has a gun pointed at the base of his head, ready to give everything up. He is a man ready for the end and Neeson's eyes alone give off a hopelessness that says even though this is the beginning of the film, he may just blow his brains out.
The Grey is less about this group of men's struggle to survive, but more about the fear of being alone. The isolation these men encounter is equal to their internal fear of not having anyone else. These men are in the middle of nowhere, even before they crash, and they realize it. Most of them fight for something they have left behind, but Ottway fights just for the hell of it.
The Grey's emotional power makes it more than what it looks like on the surface, thankfully. The film does get close to cheesy emotional sentimentality and does wander into scenarios we've seen many times before, but the performances here are what really shine out and makes The Grey not just a a stranded survivors film.
Rating: B
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