The Grey

"The Grey" tells us the story of a group of workers at an oil company in Alaska. When the plane that was transporting them crashes in the snow, they try to survive the inhospitable cold and particularly a pack of wolves.

The premise of this film does not sound very exciting. But the dialogues, performances and especially the technical execution make it one of the best films I've seen so far this year.

Ottway is a spiritually broken man, due to the absence of his wife. Ironically, when he has lost the will to live, he is forced to lead the group of survivors, because his job was to kill the beasts that wondered around the working areas and represented a treat for the workers, basically the job of a hunter.

Each survivor has its own personal story and characteristics that make them all unique. From the "hippie" who brings humor, to the ex-gang member that gets in conflict with Ottway all the time, constantly challenging his decisions. The Irish is like one of those big football players that spreads the best attitude to the rest and elevate the team's performance. 

Dramas are generally those films that can make us become really interested in their characters, because they develop and giving them a mystique that keeps you intrigued. But "The Grey" meets this goal without sacrificing the dynamic of action and suspense. Even in the calm moments where, for example, survivors share stories around a campfire, the tension is still present. 

What will keep you to the seat from the beginning till the end are the masterful direction of Joe Carnahan and the caliber of its technical team. No trace of youthful excesses like in "Smokin Aces" and "The A-Team". As an experienced orchestra director, he causes different reactions in the audience, like laughter, terror, sadness, etc.

The director joins two different kind of shooting techniques to achieve a really amazing film, using the aesthetics of handheld camera shots with breath-taking landscape shots, similar to the ones on the “Discovery Channel”. The sound of the environment freezes us to the seat and the music is just used to accentuate the tone of it, not to impose it. 

Several of the impressive "postcards", which reflect the visual talents of the filmmakers and their desire to do something new, can be appreciated on the wolves: when the blood of a victim thaws the ice to reveal the imprint of the responsible of the attack or when just the pupils of their eyes reveal their menacing presence in the almost complete dark. 

Without a doubt, the greatest success is, paradoxically, demonstrating how similar the men and wolves are: the film subtly shows us that we are not so different from them when it comes to survival, because in the end when it comes to surviving anything is possible.

If you want to be entertained, frightened, touched and you want to be led to think, do not miss what is surely one of the best films that we have had so far in this year.

Director: Joe Carnahan

Writers: Joe Carnahan (screenplay), Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (screenplay)

 Stars: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney and Frank Grillo