Peur grise

Passée la séquence d'écrasement bien troussée, le rythme fléchit et l'intrigue s'étire. Seul membre de la distribution pourvu d'un rôle étoffé, Liam Neeson s'avère solide, voire émouvant.

It's excellent to get to the end of The Grey and feel something, and there's no doubt that the especially stellar action sequences are made better because Carnahan gives us reason to care about the people in them.

Action movies, including Mr. Carnahan's earlier films, often turn death into sport, numbing pain, fear and desolation with the visceral rush of violence. The Grey, meticulous in its choreography of fight and flight, and questionable in its depiction of wolf behavior, is notable for the thoughtfulness and sensitivity with which it addresses the thorny ethical and metaphysical matters of mortality. It takes death seriously, and partly as a consequence, every moment, every frame, feels alive.

Full of scary-intense sequences that practically make it feel like a monster movie, this adaptation of a short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Joe Carnahan) is also a surprisingly introspective, occasionally downright emo film in which the characters spend much time reflecting upon their lives, struggling with faith and trying to come to terms with their seemingly impending death.

Carnahan drifts into the cerebral occasionally which may turn off fans looking for a mindless adventure. Personally I appreciated the story as it delved back into the past. It is tricky to present flashbacks for certain characters, yet it worked for me nearly every single time. This brought humanity to the men, even if it occasionally felt a tad too melodramatic for a moment or two.

Nature is a bitch. As you'll see in The Grey, a terrifically exciting, deeply unsettling survivalist epic about a dirty half-dozen or so whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, leaving them prey to biting cold and teeth-gnashing wolves.

Peur grise n'a pas la prétention d'être de l'Art. C'est une recette où tout est prévisible, mais ça marche suffisamment bien pour qu'on ne s'endorme pas ni qu'on ne regrette de s'être déplacé par temps froid !

Faisant fi d'une idée de base éprouvée et d'une bande-annonce peu convaincante, «The Grey» livre la marchandise, tenant en haleine jusqu'à la fin.

Et devant les nombreuses longueurs et la lourdeur des dialogues, on aurait souhaité que cette nouvelle fasse l'objet d'un court métrage.

Résultat: un long métrage bancal. Qu'il faut toutefois, pour en connaître la conclusion, consommer jusqu'à la dernière goutte. Laquelle se trouve après le générique.

The Grey could possibly be too smart, or at least, too thoughtful, for its own good. Everyone loves a good philosophical talk around the campfire, but not when there are giant wolves to flee.

The computer-generated wolves have more personality than any of the dull characters in The Grey.