THE GREY MOVIE REVIEW: THE WOLVES OUTSIDE, THE WOLVES INSIDE

The Grey is a movie opening around the country this weekend. Perhaps you've seen the trailers: It is presented as a survival thriller about a group of men stranded in the Alaskan wilderness doing battle with a pack of deadly wolves. That it is, but it is more than that as well.

The Grey stars Liam Neeson, an actor who, after the last few years, finds himself in a rather unique position, career wise. With movies like Schindler's List, Kinsey, Chloe and Michael Collins, he established himself as a "serious" actor who's name on an Oscar nomination list would not be surprising. But he is also a bona fide action star with movies like Taken, Batman Begins and the A Team. As a matter of fact, The Grey is directed by Joe Carnahan, who also helmed The A Team. With that pedigree one would certainly expect a lot of action from The Grey.

The Grey certainly has some thrills to deliver. A group of oil workers and their security chief (Neeson) whose main job seems to be protecting them from on site wolves, crash in the Alaskan wilderness in the middle of the winter. Seven men survive and it is Neeson's task to lead them to safety as a pack of huge aggressive wolves hunts them.

There are thrills in the movie, one in particular involving a cliff and some trees that challenge credibility, and there are also some moments of true creepiness. I've been in the bush  when you could hear wolves howling in the distance and then, later you could hear them, almost feel them, very close to you, moving in the trees. I was never in any peril from wolves but some scenes in the movie definitely got the hair moving on the back of my neck.

Those seeking a fast paced thrill ride will be disapointed by The Grey.  Director Carnahan (he also co-wrote the script) is after something more than visceral thrills. This is a movie about death, about examining death, not how it affects our bodies but how it affects our minds while we are still alive. Neeson and his companions are placed in a situation where death comes at them over and again: From the plane crash, from the elements, from the wolves

Neeson's character is obsessed with death. His job is to kill wolves. He has lost his wife and he considers his own desire to keep living. As the men move across the frozen landscape with the wolves on their trail, each of them is forced to think about death, about what it means to them, and how they should face it

There is a great deal of contemplation in the movie, presented in the form of almost wordless flashbacks for Neeson and in long monologues for the other characters. These monologues are eloquently written and beautifully delivered. The director wants these quiet moments to contrast with the thrills and the suspense. It doesn't always work. Sometimes the transitions are jarring and sometimes they just seem awkward.

What does work, is the film's smallness. It is a low budget picture which mostly succeeds: The plane crash, shot entirely in the interior and from extreme close ups is shockingly effective as is a scene where characters are swept away in a fast moving river; the shots are close and tight, saving budget on long shots and props and large setups but they are all the more visceral for it. Sometimes the budget works against the movie. Shot on video, some of the wide shots have grain so large you could serve it as a breakfast cereal

The acting is very fine in the movie. Neeson is extremely effective, his face held in incredibly tight close up, every line on his face evident, his eyes filled with emotion. Frank Grillo who plays Diaz, a tough ex con who hides his fear with bravado, is also quite moving.

The Grey is not perfect. Sometimes the movie is a bit of a war between plot and introspection. There is a need to move the story along to the next scene of character revelation but for that, the plot can suffer. There was a point in the movie where I found myself thinking "Come on, not one more thing" The behaviour of the wolves struck me as rather suspect but their realism is not a matter of great import; it's not a movie about the wolves outside of us but of the wolves inside of us, the animal deep inside that knows what death is, that knows death is coming for us, and has to decide if shall flee from it, or stand and fight.