Posted 9:48 pm Friday, February 03, 2012
Liam Neeson At His Manliest In Harrowing Survival Movie
"The Grey" brings back to theaters the sort of grounded "man versus nature" survivalist film, the likes of which we haven't seen much in the last two decades.
The closest point of comparison for this would be "The Edge" from 1997, which starred Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins as two men stranded in the Alaskan wilderness and in constant peril of being mauled by a grizzly bear. Most other entries in the genre from the last couple decades typically involved an increasingly outlandish sequence of adversarial weather encounters, in which our heroes would do remarkable things such as use a leather belt to keep from getting sucked into the eye of a tornado and outrunning the cold.
Liam Neeson stars in "The Grey" and his situation makes that of "The Edge" seem downright pleasant by comparison. Neeson plays Ottoway, a survivalist expert hired by an oil company to act as a sort of wilderness security guard, protecting workers from the predatory wolves in the snowy outland of northern Alaska.
He may be an expert marksman and his knowledge of the habits of wolves extensive, but Ottoway is a man on the edge. Haunted by his past mistakes and the departure of his wife -- to the point of almost committing suicide -- Ottoway is given a new sense of purpose when his plane crashes en route to civilization. All but six men survive the aftermath.
With little food, ramshackle shelter and a blizzard tearing through the area, their situation is made even worse when a pack of wolves shows up and lets the men know in no uncertain terms that they are trespassing. It then becomes a race against time, the elements and the wolves as Ottoway and the men make a mad dash for a nearby tree line, in the hope of better defending themselves. Only one thing is certain: Most of them won't make it back to civilization alive.
It's sort of a shame that "The Grey" is mostly being promoted as "that movie where Liam Neeson punches wolves." Since this really isn't "Taken (This Time With Canine Pugilism!)" like some people are expecting, it does a sort of disservice to the story. And what's truly at the heart of this film is the will of these seven men to survive. It's much closer to being a "men on a mission" flick than anything approaching something in the action genre.
What we get is a harrowing film, one in which the notion of survival becomes increasingly more impossible the further these men trudge through the wilderness. I have no idea if director Joe Carnahan filmed all of the movie on-location, but it sure feels real enough and likely made for what would have to be one of the most grueling, challenging shoots in movie history. The result, however, is a white-knuckled veracity to the proceedings that is unlike anything that's come through theaters in a long time.
I would say, though, that Carnahan's best accomplishment with "The Grey" is providing an interesting group of men. It is when the layers get peeled back on many of them that the film comes into its own and feels like something greater than a simply a b-level survivalist jaunt. Granted, not all of them get properly fleshed out (many of them get eaten or succumb to the elements far too quickly), but the camaraderie we see develop between them and the small details that are slowly unveiled about their lives provides some of the best moments as we learn what these men do (or do not) have waiting for them back home.
Pathos for his hardened male protagonists is something that Carnahan has always placed at the forefront of most of his films ("The A-Team" being the notable exception), but he's never done so as successfully as here. If nothing else, "The Grey" indicates a significant turning point in Carnahan's career to where he shows he's got what it takes to be an important force in film.
Then there's Liam Neeson. I love the fact that Neeson is 60 and yet he still manages to outshine actors half his age as an action star. I also love that he's only just in the last few years emerged as an action star. There's a forcefulness and weight to his presence that is lacking from so many of our other action heroes. And while Neeson's Ottoway is certainly a proactive man of action, it's the quiet moments that end up being the most affecting.
In particular, there is a moment near the end where Ottoway, battered and weary from straight days of animal and elemental abuse, shouts a harsh yet desperate plea for help to a God he feels is either absent or unfairly silent. It's the sort of scene that, in the hands of a lesser actor, would come across as over-the-top and needlessly shouty, but Neeson gives us a delivery that is so stacked with raw emotion that it ends up being one of his best on-screen moments in years.
There is a revelation about Ottoway that mirrors Neeson's own life experience that adds an extra layer of dimension to his performance, one that I won't reveal for fear of spoiling the story. But know that this is a role that Neeson makes wholly his own and I have a difficult time seeing anyone else fill Ottoway's shoes. Thank goodness Bradley Cooper didn't play the part as was originally planned.
Finally, I must make mention of the ending. Many, if not most, are going to be infuriated by this ending. A tease, they will call it. A fraud, because it does not deliver on the rather thrilling showdown it allegedly promises. Those people are foolish. The ending to "The Grey" is satisfying and thematically perfect. I feel bad for anyone who cannot appreciate it.
January has, with good reason, long been considered a dumping ground, a graveyard for films. Thankfully that's beginning to change, and in large part because of movies such as this one. "The Grey" isn't just a great movie for January, it's a great movie period and already has a definite shot at being one of my favorite films of the year.
Grade: A
Stewart Smith is the Entertainment Editor for the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Contact him at 903-596-6301 or by e-mail at ssmith@tylerpaper.com.
