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The Grey

Liam Neeson is back to show Hollywood how to be a gritty action hero. John Ottway is a natural hunter, hired to keep an oil drilling team safe from packs of wild wolves his life is plain, simple and dull. He isolates himself from his peers and views them from the outside as not worth the hassle, the wild is his home. The wild may too serve as his grave after the plane carrying him and the oil-drilling team goes down mid flight, the survivors are left with no means of communicating with the outside word and only their wits to help them survive. Ottoway instantly steps forward as an unwilling leader to the charge of souls left standing, realizing beyond most the harsh realities of the wild, death could come from anywhere. The group must overcome freezing temperatures, packs of predators and harsh terrain in order to try and navigate their way to safety, will any of them make it through the hazardous trials that stand between them and their lives beyond the grey...

The central figure of the film, holding everything together and making the film what it is, Liam Neeson and his portrayal of the down beat hunter thrown into role of leader is the stand out shining point of the film. In recent years Neeson has made a stand out hero in his darker and edgier roles and this is much the same, Ottway is down on luck and down on life in general, a crumpled letter is his only sign of hope through the turmoil. While several story elements come from the band of survivors the majority of the real gripping drama is pulled along by Neeson, the very point of his isolation goes along with the theme, that despite the other characters it will always be Ottway against the wild, Man vs Nature, and Neeson judging by his performance aims to win.

The story may be nothing new and in many ways if you've seen one survival film you've seen the majority of survival films, yet Neeson's portrayal brings the film to a much grander scale than others in it's genre. Without Neeson the other characters would most likely disappear left right and center in the first few minutes, yet when  measured up to Ottway the isolated and grim figure of humanity the empathy for the characters and Ottway himself pushes through. Oddly this rather colorless and void film holds more heart than any other survival I've seen to date, while Ottway views those around him with contempt at first he gradually views them as friends and with this the human side is shown in him as well as the heartfelt reasons for getting back to society, these rough convict types are shown to be quite the caring bunch. Though even without some of the heart scenarios the film does provide some empty scenes that appear rather bland though the majority stands above the rest of the overhyped material swirling about Hollywood, The Grey offers instead exactly what it says and throws out a survival tale against the circle of life itself a recommendation in itself.

7  /  10

FIN.

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