The Grey (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Nonso Anozie, Joe Anderson, Ben Bray, James Badge Dale
KRS release

Liam Neeson has reinvented himself as an action hero.

...one realises how much both man and wolf are alike- Johan Galea

With Taken he had achieved box office success and then he beat up some European bad guys in The Unknown.

Now it’s time for him to face a different kind of foe: a pack of wolves.

The film is an adaptation of the short story Ghost Walker by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers who also acted as co-writer of the picture with director John Carnahan.

The latter, who had excelled in the low-budget Narc to then lose himself in the excesses of A-Team, is back to form with The Grey.

His return to low-budget grittiness and raw deal really bring out the best in him as a director.

The film is a visceral experience – one that is lean, mean and hungry like the wolves that prowl its cells.

The only problem lies in its occasional meandering pace, introspective stance and a conclusion that peters out rather than erupts.

John Ottway (Liam Neeson) is a man who has been through a lot.

He works in the Arctic as a sharpshooter for an oil rig company where his job is to keep the workers safe from the hostile wildlife including the grey wolves that lurk over there.

At one point he decides to end it all and the irony is that it is the howling of the wolves that save him.

John boards an aircraft that will take him and other workers to the city for some deserved rest.

The airplane, however, crashes and John and the other men find themselves in the middle of the snowy and icy wasteland.

The men include Talget (Dermot Muroney), Henrick (Dallas Roberts), Burke (Nonso Anozie), Hernandez (Ben Bray), Lewenden (James Badge Dale) and Flannery (Joe Anderson).

There are also ex-convicts, like John Diaz (Frank Grillo).

They all seek temporary shelter in the fuselage as with no means of calling for rescue they are sure to die from cold and starvation.

John takes over the group and they head for the trees. Here they aim to get some sort of protection from the wolves. But they sniff them out and start picking them off one by one.

From here onwards, it’s one big battle for survival as the men gate-crash wolf territory.

Mr Neeson makes for a very grisly hero. He does not tackle his role in Sylvester Stallone style from the Cliffhanger days.

Instead, he comes imbued with an existentialist desperation which he resolves by battling for his own survival.

The “grey” may be in the title but there are various shades of colour to be found in Mr Neeson’s performance.

Outwardly, the actor seems to struggle in the company of wolves and the environment, but he is also in a struggle with himself.

The film is propelled forward by the grim visuals of Mr Carnahan.

Masanobu Takayanagi’s cinematography captures both the majestic beauty and the visceral desolation and harshness of the environment, which dominates the film.

The result is an action film with an insightful quality that is quite poetic, but offers no surprises story-wise. The wolves are lean and mean and look much more terrifying than any mutt that the Twilight saga has offered so far.

By the time the film starts wrapping up, one realises how much both man and wolf are alike. In fact, Mr Neeson really seems to have become one old wolf.