A howling good time

FILM REVIEW

The Grey
DIRECTED BY: Joe Carnahan
STARRING: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Frank Grillo
CERT: 15A

There’s a point early on in The Grey where you might find yourself thinking, as I did, “Well now, this is very like that movie Alive”.
You know, the one based on the true story about a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes and, in order to stay alive, the survivors resorted to eating their dead teammates. 
You might find it a tad amusing when, almost exactly at the same time you’re thinking this, one of the characters in The Grey declares, with a certain grim humour, that this is just like that movie Alive. He goes on to describe, in darkly funny detail, how he hopes it doesn’t come to that. 
I’m not going to say it doesn’t, but in this movie, the survivors end up being slightly more concerned with trying to avoid being eaten before they’re even dead.
The Grey is based on the short story Ghost Walker by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, who co-wrote the script with director Joe Carnahan – best known for Smokin’ Aces and the big screen reboot of The A-Team, and unfortunately less well known for the excellent Narc.
Carnahan’s A-Team leading man Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a suicidal marksman employed by an oil corporation in the Arctic Circle. Ottway’s job is to kill predators, to protect the oil workers from hungry animals. Though as far as Mr Ottway is concerned, these employees are little more than beasts themselves, men not fit for normal human society. Which is probably why they’re living in the cold corner of hell, spending their free time drinking and fighting.
Flying out on leave, Ottway and a small group of his workmates end up stranded in the vast frozen territory of Alaska when their plane crashes, killing most of those on board. With little hope of being found, their initial concern is to keep warm and find grub. But that’s before the local wolf pack shows up to avail of the free human food and to express, in their own unique way, that they really don’t like intruders on their turf. This unique communication technique generally involves tearing some unfortunate men to pieces.
Seeing as he’s the man who knows most about wolves and their habits, Ottway takes charge and leads the group off into the woods – where, for reasons that make little sense to me, they will apparently have a better chance of keeping all of their limbs. 
As they go on the run, we discover that maybe Ottway was a bit harsh in describing the boys as animals. Really, they’re just the usual bunch of ordinary chaps – or at least, the selection of ordinary chaps you find in any action movie. The funny fella, the family man, the quiet lad, and of course, the dangerously mad boy who will probably get everyone killed. There are no women either because it was wisely decided that you don’t always need a token female character, or because some studio suit was nervous that nobody would come to see a movie where, to butcher the words of Warren Zevon, the wolves rip her lungs out, Jim.
In any case, what ensues is a pretty grim chase, where the men are picked off one by one. As a defence, Ottway declares that the remaining men will stay alive only if they do the same to the wolves – take them out one at a time. It’s a fine idea but it never actually plays out that way. Perhaps because it would have made for a more complicated story, or simply because, hey, life gets messy and sometimes your best plans just don’t work. Especially if, say, you’re in the woods surrounded by a bazillion wild dogs who don’t like you.
It’s an admirable touch, and there’s a lot more that’s genuinely good about The Grey. Yes, it’s an action film, and yes, there is a certain familiar formula to how it all plays out. But at the same time, there’s an intelligence in the story – and in the well-written script – that you don’t find in your average action flick. There’s a sadness, and a pondering of death and spiritual things, that gives weight to the film and its characters – who may be clichés to a certain degree, but they’re also men you grow to care about, without really knowing anything about them.
Neeson is great in yet another action man performance, and it’s a pleasure to see him play a character who combines the gritty, kick-ass tough guy routine with the soft, troubled soul of a man in some deep grief we don’t learn about until late in the day. He has frequent thoughts and dreams of a wife (Anne Openshaw), who shows up in flashbacks, usually right around the time when something is going to go horribly wrong.
Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo and Dallas Roberts are among the supporting cast, all of whom do a fine job as men on the run from certain death.
The other outstanding character is the beautiful, harsh landscape of British Columbia. It looks lovely, and terrible, and deadly. It adds greatly to the general sense of doom, to the feeling that, just maybe, this story is not going to end well.
The climax won’t be to everyone’s liking. But don’t leave the cinema when the credits start to roll.