'The Grey' offers intense atmosphere and philosophy

Liam Neeson has been building quite a name for himself in the past few years. It says a lot about your vocation when the roles of a Jedi, the mentor of Batman, and the King of the Greek gods are not among the highlights of your acting career. He's managed to brave every threat that man can throw at him and with the release of "The Grey," he's now out to prove he can use his particular set of skills to punch out mother nature in Alaska.

Neeson plays oil company worker, John Ottway, who hunts the local wolves that threaten his drilling team. With the job complete, Ottway and the team board a plane to take them home which fails to hold up against a fierce blizzard and ultimately crashes somewhere in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Being the only expert on the conditions that the men now find themselves in, Ottway must now use his knowledge of the territory and local wolf behavior in order to guide his men to survival against both the harsh weather and climate conditions, as well as the a pack of wolves that see the survivors of the crash as a threat.

The film focuses on the trials of the survivors to hike to safety as they are continually chased by the wolves, as well as work through the psychological toll that the crash has taken on them and the rising tensions that they have with one another. The camaraderie between the survivors as they get to know one another is genuinely touching and can be attributed to the solid acting of the cast, including Neeson himself, despite not being able to hold an American sounding accent to save his life.

The direction of these dialogue heavy scenes is solid enough to cover the fact that a lot of the actual dialogue spoken is kind of lame. It's the typical band of survivors' cliché stuff about what they're going to do with their loved ones when they get back home interlaced with various swear words. It's not quite a black mark on the film, but it does distract from scenes that are otherwise very tense and entertaining to watch.

Fortunately, the rest of the film is up to snuff with the premise. The movie establishes right from the get go that wolf attacks can happen at any given time. The film is under two hours long, and I found myself on the edge of my seat throughout nearly the entire running time of the film.

For all of its positives however, "The Grey" is not without some chunkiness. The film tries to explore the philosophical question of how one knows whether or not they have lived life to the fullest and to what extent it is worth fighting for. I appreciated its attempts to address such issues, unfortunately it doesn't quite dedicate the time needed for it to fully develop, resulting in an ending that is supposed to be covered with symbolism but comes off as abrupt.

These flaws don't sink the film as a whole, however. It's not great or perfect but the film is nonetheless enjoyable, has good food for thought, and I highly recommend it as a way to pass two hours.

B