1. I walked out of The Grey thinking a lot about poetry. That may sound weird to you, that a movie watching Liam Neeson go HAM on wolves in the snow would make you think of poetry. But there’s this fairly famous poem that escapes me right now, it’s a meditation on death. And like with all meditations on death, it becomes a commentary on life, by proxy. Why we live, why dying is so hard, and why survival has purpose, beyond escaping the inevitable terminus of everyone’s existence. I wish so, so badly I could remember that poem’s name, because I would love to just post that poem here and that would be the end of my review of The Grey. Because it’s not an action movie, it’s not a movie about a dude taping broken bottles to his gloves and fighting wolves like a boss. It’s about why that fight happened, it’s about what that fight means, and what that fight accomplishes. It’s a deeply moving, unsettling, and at times, exhausting movie about inevitability, and if you are disappointed walking out of this film, like so many people were in the theater I saw it in, then you quite frankly, have missed the point. 

2. Just a fair warning (and very very mild spoiler): if you have a fear of flying, heights, freezing to death, drowning, and…well, being eaten by wolves, you should probably avoid this movie. The plane crash was incredibly unsettling, and I’m not even scared of flying in the least bit. I am scared of drowning, and there’s a scene that made me almost have a nervous breakdown in the movie about someone drowning. 

3. Thank god this was the Joe Carnahan of NARC, rather than the Carnahan of Smokin’ Aces and A-Team, that showed up for The Grey. Carnahan has this amazing way of balancing the non-action parts of action movies beautifully with movies that aren’t action movies. Wait, did you understand that sentence? There’s a lot of hallmarks of action movies that show up in the dramas Carnahan does, and they help make what would otherwise be a bogged down, overserious noir-ish movie into something way more palatable. This works infinitely better than doing the opposite, shoehorning in dramatic elements into a balls out action movie, and it’s not really his fault that really NO one can do that all that effectively. The Grey balances it nicely. 

4. (again, mild spoiler) It’s impossible to watch this movie and not think of Liam Neeson’s own personal life and tragedies playing into his character, and it was a rare moment when the breaking of the fourth wall gave you more connection to his portrayal of a man with nothing to live for, other than simply living. I won’t really say more than that, but it’s a really moving performance, and had the rest of the movie been more disappointing, I would’ve still enjoyed watching Neeson’s performance for that alone.

5. I’m trying my best not to spoil this movie, and even beyond that, not to do too much personal philosophizing or navel gazing. The Grey is a movie that gives you what you bring to it, and if you’re someone who is like me, and thinks about death, and legacy, and purpose in life, then this movie may hit you hard. If you don’t, or if you simply don’t want to engage with it, I can’t see this movie being all that fun for you. For the record, I thought it was pretty fantastic.