Once more into the Frey...
In many ways The Grey is the perfect film to start this blog with; it’s a film that I’m glad I didn’t get to see at the cinema and a film I definitely would have been disappointed if I had bought it on DVD. But nevertheless I still enjoyed watching it. Mostly.
Scene
The film follows seven oil workers and a skilled huntsman (Liam Neeson) who become stranded in Alaska after their plane crashes. They have to salvage what they can and try and find help. Oh and there’s wolves. Cunning wolves who try to take them out one by one just for funsies.
Take
I was excited to see this film for one reason and one reason only; Liam Neeson fighting a wolf. With glass on his knuckles. Badass. But it’s not what you think. I won’t throw any spoilers in but you will probably feel a little let down. This, aptly, sums up the film; there is promise of a decent survivor flick but it never quite grabs you.
The main positive and the reason I didn’t cry myself to sleep after The Grey was the solid cast. You know you’re not going to get any decent tears out of Neeson but it was another solid performance from him. The others were low in the Hollywood elite but pulled out some fine performances, most notably Frank Grillo (the good looking chap from Prison Break) who was very good as the antagonist of the group.
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| Rumour has it the idea for The Grey came from the popular internet meme 'Insanity Wolf'. True story. |
Director
Overall the direction was a little disjointed and you never really got any sense of purpose or progress. This may have been intentional, as when stranded in a snow environment survivors are often said to feel disoriented, but you shouldn’t feel that way as an audience.
The Grey did have some nice back story though and you can tell the angle that Carnahan (director) was going for but it didn’t quite make the grade. The storyline is basic, which is fine, as long as it’s underpinned by character development, is part of an overarching theme or at least has some pretty explosions. The only real “subtlety”, and I use the term very loosely, in the storyline is the rather blatant parallel between the group of men and the pack of wolves. This is the only real subject matter holding the film together, and it’s fairly weak. You never really empathise with any of the characters, which means you don’t really give a shit when they die.
Another point worth mentioning is the rather poor CGI. In one scene the group look out into the night and see an ominous set of eyes staring back…Scary. This is followed by a series of other sets of eyes which suddenly appear like stars in the night! It was like something out of a fucking cartoon. In general the CGI was disappointing. You don’t really get to see the wolves and when you do they look obviously animated or, when one of them is biting Neeson’s leg- a puppet. The director obviously spent too much money on fake snow.
And cut.
So the positives are few and far between but I still don’t regret watching it. The Grey did improve as the film went on and there were some genuinely tense parts which were enjoyable. But nonetheless I can’t help but feel I would have been left with that twang of disappointment if I had been to the cinema to watch it. I imagine it to be like going to the January sales; you go with high hopes of finding something special but end up slightly disappointed with a slight feeling of guilt. Don’t risk buying it, borrow it from the interwebs.
