I was downright shocked at how much I liked this movie and especially considering that almost all of the audience I saw it with hated it. But most likely the same things they didn’t like were the same things I did like: the willingness to keep us off our toes, the realism, the refusal to just be a mindless action survival flick and actually be a drama too, the tiny flashbacks that told us a little of who these characters are, and the movie’s ultra-ambiguous and abrupt ending which is probably the biggest risk I’ve seen an action movie take in years.
What Works: I know The Grey will have an ending that people will bitch about being a letdown for years to come but to me its ambiguity ended the movie in the most surprising way possible and attention has to be paid to such a risk. Not every movie has to feel wholly “satisfying” when it’s taking such exciting risks, and I would include that with the way several characters died in this movie. Just when you think you’re watching a movie about horrible wolves that eat people, someone will die in a way that has nothing to do with wolves and it is always horrifying and shocking, just as death should be. The movie doesn’t take anything at predictable face value, and I really felt grateful to watch a movie that didn’t insult my intelligence instead of something for children like Man on a Ledge. I particularly liked that this is really more as much a deep drama as a realistic thriller, and the two keep expertly colliding in unsuspected ways: the startling plane crash at the beginning, the decision to just let one character give up and sit down to enjoy the view, the loving flashbacks mixed in with the harsh reality (my favorite of which involves a dying character fantasizing that his daughter is standing over him when really its a wolf that’s about to eat him).
What Doesn’t Work: Well…you know, there’s going to be a whole lot of people that say “the ending” but fuck ’em. Not everyone wants to be bored at a predictable movie, and reviewers should applaud a movie’s risks, not pander to people that want to watch the same movie over and over and over again, and be able to tell exactly what it’s going to do.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Not much. Sure there are always tweaks here and there, but why nitpick and add to the growing chorus of voices complaining about this movie? I feel in my bones this movie will be nitpicked and nagged to death until it’s completely written off by both audiences and critics as a “disappointment” and that will be a real shame.