"The Grey" - 2012 - movie review

"The Grey" is not a date movie. Ostensibly it's a survival tale set in the wilds of Alaska but not too far beneath the surface is an allegorical tale about getting older, losing your health, your idealism, your friends and loved ones and yet somehow still finding the strength to soldier on with your head held high.

Liam Neeson is a professional hunter hired by an oil company to protect pipeline workers against the area's predators. He's deeply depressed over losing his love (though the story doesn't tell you how she 'left him' until nearly the end) and soon after the film begins he's kneeling in the snow with his rifle in his mouth. He decides against shooting himself for the time being and the next day is on a flight with other oil workers for some R&R in Anchorage. The plane crashes in the remote Alaskan wilderness and the wounded, freezing, unarmed and lost survivors of the crash are left to fend for themselves against the fierce elements that include a pack of wolves whose territory they've had the bad fortune of landing in.

The plane crash itself can be seen as a metaphor for birth. Neeson and his compatriots are dropped unceremoniously into a hostile world they didn't ask to be dropped into. Like everyone born into the paradox that is life they each deal with it in different ways. After getting hold of themselves to a degree they set out through the cold cruel world seeking that place of refuge or that rescuer that will deliver them from their plight with the hungry indifferent pursuers ever on their trail. Everywhere they go in their attempt to elude the wolves they find only more wolves. Nesson's character, on the verge of suicide the day before the flight, now clings furiously to life, unwilling to give it up even though he has no idea why. He's buttressed in his struggle to stay alive by his memory of love. He also carries with him what amounts to a suicide note he'd written before the plane crash and each time he pulls it out during his ordeal it seems to have less and less relevance to him. He's alive now. That's all the matters

The story doesn't get sullied up by injecting super-villains or implausible situations. When people get hurt they aren't rarin' to go in the next scene. There's no rail car full of situation specific uber-tech waiting beyond that line of trees. They're on their own against a nature that doesn't give a rat's ass about their dreams, their ambitions, their triumphs, their sorrows or their opinion of it.

Director Joe Carnahan elevates his game for this outing. Formerly a light-weight with heavyweight ambitions he makes the leap up in weight classification here. The film is occassionally gripping with certain scenes conjuring memories of Bergman's "The New Land" (1972). Credit also must go to cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi - known mainly to this point for his work in short films. He too seems poised to me to make a big leap forward after this. The landscapes are often breathtaking; and not just the mountain vistas. Takayanagi treats the landscape of the face with the same care and precision he treats the peaks and valleys of British Columbia, where the film was shot.

Though the cast consists mainly of TV vets they all manage to do a creditable job here in support of Nesson who gives perhaps his most heartfelt performance ever. His character Ottway is multifaceted and believable and Neeson seems to reach deep down into himself in his quest to portray a man simultaneously on the verge of life and death.

Those who are offended by the fact that the agents of the void here are wolves (who don't have a long history of unprovoked attacks on humans) are missing the bigger picture. The Grey has far more in common with King Lear than NatGeo Wild.

After the film seems to end with an abrupt cut to black there is a second ending of sorts after the credits. It's only a few seconds long and seems the kind of thing the studio must have insisted be tacked on in order to prevent audiences from despairing. It's the one obviously weak element in an otherwise strong production.