In terms of grey movies, this isn’t as good as 2011’s “The Grey,” about on par with 2020’s “Greyhound” and better than 2022’s “The Gray Man (I think that counts).” Take that for what you will.
When it comes to “In the Grey,” Eiza Gonzalez stars as high-powered attorney Rachel Wild. The title gives insight into Rachel’s profession, she works in-between the criminal underworld and major financial institutions, or as she calls it, the black and white of the fiscal world. The grey. Her latest effort involves trying to recover a loan from a crime lord for a major establishment.
In order to do so, she recruits her elite team, headlined by two black ops-level individuals, Sid Sensible (Henry Cavill) and Bronco Beauregard (Jake Gyllenhaal). The trio, along with others on the team, set up an elaborate scheme to not only hurt the crime lord’s wallet, but come prepared with firepower in case the situation gets out of hand.
The latest film from writer/director Guy Ritchie tries to do two things at once, for better and for worse, resulting in a mixed bag. On the one hand, “In the Grey” has a rather complicated situation taking place over the course of the film, with several moving, intricate parts, from legal moves to getaway planning.
There’s a lot of commotion and complexity to all the scheming and actions by the main characters. At the same time, the flick clocks in at only an hour and 38 minutes, with an extraordinarily breezy vibe and quick pace to the whole affair. The film is snappy in its approach, with its characters setting up plans, executing them and moving on to the next.
So, an audience gets some bits of a sophisticated crime thriller, and pieces of a straightforward 90-minute action flick, with Ritchie trying to meld the two together. Ultimately, it’s OK. The movie does run into issues with the entire plot being a bit too convoluted for a film with that short of a runtime, while also coming across as too much of a simple action picture to have proper depth.
The good news is that Ritchie is able to make elements of these aspects work quite well. Big stakes business meetings where Wild is negotiating, or sequences of her orchestrating litigation to bring her opponents to the table are properly engaging, with a sort of high roller heist feel going on.
The action, meanwhile, is exceptionally well done. In the hands of an experienced director who knows his way around the genre, set pieces can really pop off, and that’s the case here. There are some fantastic sequences featured, including an awesome, claustrophobic moment in a café, as well as a wonderful chase across different terrain.
The tradeoff, of course, is the movie is fairly shallow in a few ways. The whole thing feels cut down. The movie’s heavier elements don’t have a ton of intrigue and only trace amounts of commentary. Its action heroes, meanwhile, are rather thin when it comes to personality and the banter is only in service to move things along.
The film does benefit greatly from its cast. There’s Academy Award nominees in Jake Gyllenhaal and Rosamund Pike who both have great track records, as well as the underrated Henry Cavill and a reliable veteran in Carlos Bardem.
Plus, it boasts Fisher Stevens, who’s done great work such as in “Succession,” Eiza Gonzalez, an actress with solid history in action flicks in the likes of “Baby Driver” and “Ambulance” is good with the lead role, too.
Again, it would have been nice to dig more into these characters, particularly Rachel. A couple more scenes of her being casual or open with Bronco and Sid could have gone a long way.
“In the Grey” is the type of movie that doesn’t have much to make it a memorable experience. There’s not much richness to the viewing, with most of it being surface level entertainment. Thanks to the direction and cast, though, that entertainment is fairly good. The film does have a ton of narration making bits somewhat tedious, but there’s enough excitement to make it work for an average matinee watch. 3.15 out of 5.
Courtesy Black Bear Pictures
