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Death takes predatory form in “The Grey,” a spiritualistic, outdoorsy Alaska thriller that sees a group of plane-crash survivors attempt to outrun a pack of ravenous wolves, which is to say their own collective, relentless fate. The metaphor may sound as blatant as an encroaching, ghost-filled fog, but director and co-writer Joe Carnahan does a rather bang-up job of fusing the existential with the atmospheric, offering very well-filmed action and spooky, frigid dread that would grip you even if it weren’t grasping for a higher purpose. That it does merely helps to fend off the film’s dismissal as just another survivalist hike.
Backed by producers Ridley and Tony Scott, Carnahan channels his influences in a manner both deft and transparent, showing signs of everything from the “Alien” saga to “Lost” to “Open Water” to 1993’s “Alive” (which this film’s characters casually reference for good, pseudo-meta measure). Led by Liam Neeson’s huntsman, Ottway, a man ostensibly in tune with the secrets of mortality but really just as lost as the rest of us, the rough-and-tumble survivors all hail from a remote Tundra drill site, and they’re dropped into an unforgiving purgatory where it’s either succumb to the beast or outlast and ascend.
The film’s initial hour is riveting stuff, thanks in large part to Masanobu Takayanagi’s perfectly appropriate high-grain cinematography and a strong succession of patient, potent scenes (the most memorable features Ottway gently and terrifyingly coaching a crash victim as he dies). A largely convincing mix of computer-generated imagery, camera tricks and — one should think — the real, furry deal, Carnahan’s wolves truly scare as they stalk, and they prove a formidable match for Neeson and his articulate bad-assery (the actor continues his new career as the middlebrow Nicolas Cage).
“The Grey” doesn’t quite maintain the vigor that ushers it in, and it’s unfortunately padded with too much obligatory filler seen in too many down-to-the-last-man flicks (your comic relief and crude contrarian characters are duly accounted for). By and large, though, this is exciting, decidedly un-hollow entertainment, and it’s far better than what you’d expect from a mainstream January release.
The Grey
R
Three reels out of four
Opens tomorrow in area theaters
Recommended Rental
Drive
R
Available Tuesday
Few filmmakers last year showed as much formal control over their pet projects as Nicolas Refn did with “Drive,” a dizzyingly stylish and pristinely well-made action drama that stars Ryan Gosling as a mysterious stuntman who doubles as a freelance driver. There’s crime, there’s romance, there’s intrigue, and there’s a smashed skull in an elevator. There’s also some of the finest uses of music, sound, editing and ultra-slick cinematography that 2011 had to offer.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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