Staying in Alaska, The Grey is a Liam Neeson vehicle through and through; a gritty thriller in which he gets to flex his well-worn gruff chops. He plays John Ottway, an oil man who finds himself stranded in the wilds of Alaska along with his colleagues after their plane crashes - along with the harsh wilderness the men have to contend with a pack of hungry wolves, determined to have them for dinner. It's a formulaic set-up with a penchant for stock characters, and while it doesn't shatter any genre conventions it more than delivers the goods in terms of tension and action. Neeson, after all, is a dab hand at these kind of roles, and watching him taking on anything thrown his way is always a huge pleasure. Joe Carnahan is hardly a director noted for his subtlety, but subtly is not what The Grey is aiming for, while the merciless environment is captured with authenticity. As with many survival films, The Grey's themes ooze testosterone, with the notion of manliness pushed to its extreme. There's also a spiritual undertone bubbling away beneath the nihilistic surface, as if enduring such dreadful conditions and going up against an alpha predator represent man's ultimate challenge.
