The Grey
Dir: Joe Carnahan
2012
*****
The Grey isn't really a film about a group of oil-rig workers trying to survive the bitter conditions after their plane crashes in a remote part of Alaska. It's actually one big metaphor. Liam Neeson's character is a troubled loner, the plane crash represents a choice he has to make. This choice is ambiguous, I have my theories but this is the 'Grey area' of which the film names itself after. It's about mental survival rather than physical survival, belief and reasoning playing big parts in this. I think the wolves that are out of get the group are representative of lots of other things, ordinary things like temptation and anger (without wanting to sound too biblical). I think they're never quite convincing as real wolves for this very reason, it's been commented that they're not as 'Wolf-like' as people would have liked but this isn't a special effects issue, I believe it's intentional. I also think that the other passengers are elements of our protagonists personality, or at least his personality faults, this is why he gets stronger each time one of them dies. It's easy to miss this given the sort of action films Liam Neeson has done later in his career but lets not forget the great films Liam Neeson has made in this ilk like 1985's Lamb.  It exceeded my fairly low expectations tenfold, I can almost forgive Joe Carnahan for what he did to the A-Team. Almost. It's not quite my favourite film of the year but it certainly is the pleasant surprise of 2012.