The Grey
Joe Carnahan
The story: A plane ferrying oil workers crashes in a snowy desolate pocket of Alaska. The handful of survivors include Ottway (Liam Neeson), Talget (Dermot Mulroney) and Diaz (Frank Grillo). They have to figure out how to stay alive in the harsh terrain while keeping a pack of fearsome wolves at bay. Based on the short story Ghost Walker by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Joe Carnahan.

Make sure you bring warm clothing along to the screening because The Grey brings the chill of winter right into the cinema hall.
Not the kind of cosy, picturesque winter one might experience on a holiday, but winter as a primaeval force of nature with swirling snow blizzards and life-threatening cold.
The spectacularly staged plane crash here brings to mind the one that opened the fantasy TV series Lost (2004-2010).
What happens next is straightforward: The men have to keep warm, keep moving and keep out of the jaws of the wolves.
Director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, 2010) takes this simple premise and spins a gripping two-hour- long thriller out of it.
The wolf attacks are quick and vicious. Just a shot of multiple pairs of lupine eyes glowing in the dark is enough to create an atmosphere of dread.
Some of the sequences – including Neeson’s Ottway fighting off a wolf by punching it and the men crossing over from a cliff to some trees in order to reach the river – seem preposterous in hindsight and yet one is too caught up when watching the scenes to quibble.
Ottway is a weary, beaten man who was planning to kill himself before he got on that fateful flight. Yet when faced with the stark possibility of death, his survival instinct kicks in.
Drama ensues among the men as Diaz questions Ottway’s assumption of leadership.
That is clearly a silly thing to do as the physically imposing Ottway exudes grizzled authority and was previously shooting down wolves which threatened the oil drilling team. He is the best-informed person on the creatures.
Apart from the tense action, Carnahan injects unexpected moments of spirituality into the film including a poignant scene of one man coming to terms with his death.
In the finale, Ottway gears up for a fight to the finish as he faces down the alpha male of the wolf pack. It is at once shot through with hope and bravery and acceptance and even insanity – the perfect note on which to end the film.
For those who need a more definitive closure, stay on till the end of the credits for a brief epilogue.
(ST)