Movies

Writer-director Joe Carnahan throws a bunch of roughnecks to the wolves, literally, in this tale of battling for life in the face of the harshest, wildest conditions imaginable.

Ottway (Liam Neeson) leads the few survivors of a (very vivid and jarring) plane crash in the remote Alaskan wilderness. They are soon targeted by a pack of wolves, intent on hunting down every survivor.

Ottway's occupation is sharpshooter, charged with protecting against wolf attacks at an oil refinery, where the other survivors are workers. He is alpha male of this wretched human pack and tries his best to lead them away from the teeth of both the bitter cold and the savage wolves.

Neeson brings a brooding melancholy to his character, with a mysterious and haunted past, as seen in frequent flashbacks to his dying wife (Anne Openshaw) and the constant repetition of a poem's line; "live and die on this day", reaffirm his acceptance of death.

The cast is well chosen, in particular Frank Grillo as Diaz, a violent redneck, with no empathy for others, and Dermot Mulroney as the quiet and soft-humoured Talget.

The wolves are the real stars here. Carnahan uses puppetronics, live animals and just a touch of CGI to create scarily savage, almost mystical creatures. One scene, where a hastily lit fire immediately shows many wild, red eyes appearing out of nowhere, reinforce the primeval bloodlust.

However, apart from Diaz, the characters never really transform much. This movie is grim and grey, like the scenery and with little humour to lighten it. Neeson carries the best grim visage, but he stays grim from beginning to end.

As a character study, The Grey is no howling success, but the cinematography and sets really do answer the call of the wild.