The Grey (2011)

Genre: Thriller

Directed by: Joe Canahan

Starring: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney

Running time: 117 minutes

A group of oil-rig workers find themselves stranded in the mountains of Alaska when their plane crashes. Those who survived the crash will have to battle the rugged elements and the rabid wolves roaming around the area if they want to have any hope of making it out of there alive.

It took me a while to get into this particular film. When the movie starts, we get kind of lost in the thoughts of the main character John Ottway (Neeson). Through his internal dialogue, we get a feel for the group we are seeing at work and the task at hand for them. That whole part seemed kind of uninspired in the delivery to me. I just could not seem to care. Once the plane crashes and the survivors have to spring into action, and Ottway gets out of his thoughts, things start to get interesting.

The scenes involving wolves attacking human beings are not for the faint of heart. They feel very real, even for a disillusioned soul such as I. We do feel the isolation of those men having to walk in deep snow and be on a constant lookout for the mean beasts walking around.

Definitely not the best Liam Neeson movie I have ever seen, but a very decent film. The Grey starts very slow, but, when business picks up, it pulls you in. For those who want to give it a shot, tough it out. It is the kind of movie that gets better as it goes along, ending with a nice little twist at the end.

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