The Grey

Director Joe Carnahan is best known for his last block buster action flick which was most well received. It was called The A Team. Packed with edge of the seat action sequences and a pace that was quite difficult to keep up with, The A Team was every boy’s dream come true – a man movie in the truest sense of the word. Carnahan should have stuck to that formula when he moved on to direct The Grey.

Don’t get me wrong. What he does very well is create a huge fear of probably the largest of all canine species – the Alaskan Wolf. He builds it in a manner that borders on being super eerie and spine chilling. The villain in this movie is not a human being but a hungry bunch of wolves who find themselves with a juicy target – a bunch of humans who are all but shattered because their plane crashed into the middle of nowhere. Middle of Nowhere for us humans but for the wolves it’s their home and when fresh meat arrives – they feast.

And if it the irony in the world was not sufficient, one of the survivors of the crash is Ottway (Liam Neeson) who is actually a wolf tracker by profession and suddenly finds himself in a position that is totally unfamiliar. He has turned from being a tracker to being the one who is tracked. Not just unfamiliar but scary as hell. Would the wolves be able to sense the fact that here is a man who actually takes most of their kin away? And would they, if they sense it, focus their energies on getting him by putting their collective might behind running Ottway and the others to the ground? Whether the former is true or not is immaterial because the latter is.

The Grey is a movie that joins a list which doesn’t release in this country along with the rest of the world. It has taken over 6 months to find its way here. But when you see it, one can probably understand the reason for the delay or skepticism from the distributors. There is, as the name of the movie suggests, a lot left to the interpretation of the audience – especially the end which I thought was really well done. Something that the average Indian audience doesn’t take too kindly to.

Add to this, while Liam Neeson is the central character, he doesn’t really have the clear mantle of the hero. It is the joint effort from 7 men who are trying their best to survive against nature. And compared to the A Team, this moves at a snail’s pace with some action sequences thrown in as garnish. Overall, a good movie but nothing really mind blowing. I give it 6 on 10. Watch it if you can.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2672533017/