In The Grey - Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

AT THE start of Guy Ritchie’s latest, Eiza González declares that the role of her shadowy organisation is to exist “in the grey” of the film’s title. Somewhere between the legal and the illegal, the right and the wrong.

It could be argued that In The Grey similarly exists in that middle area between memorable and forgettable Ritchie films - most of which, of course, exist in the same grey zones as its characters.

Made way back in 2023, before being passed between distributors amid delayed release dates, the film is as slick, stylised and fast moving as you’d expect from Ritchie, buoyed by a great cast that’s led by Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill, while also featuring the likes of González and Rosamund Pike.

But while consistently entertaining, it lacks the staying power of, say, The Covenant (Ritchie’s former collaboration with Gyllenhaal), or the breezy disposition and scintillating chemistry of The Man From UNCLE (Ritchie’s first pairing with Cavill). It’s also far inferior to some of the director’s best work, such as Snatch, either Sherlock Holmes movies (particularly A Game of Shadows) or The Gentlemen.

If anything, it’s more on a par with the likes of more recent blink and you may miss them Ritchie offerings such as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Wrath of Man or Operation Fortune.

The premise does offer some intrigue and even social relevance in that it focuses on a female lawyer named Rachel (González), whose job is to retrieve unpaid debts from dangerous figures, working on behalf of similarly shadowy financial firms.

Her latest target is a man named Salazar (Carlos Bardem), who owes $1bn to a similarly ruthless financial exec named Bobby (Pike), whose previous attempts to retrieve the funds on the cheap have resulted in the death of a lawyer.

Rachel may be expensive but she’s highly effective, bringing in her most trusted cohorts Sid and Bronco (Cavill and Gyllenhaal), who offer both brawn and brain to concoct a plan to keep her safe and force a deal with Salazar in person.

She subsequently applies a choke hold around Salazar’s finances that force the meeting she desires - but which inevitably places her own life at risk, along with that of her team.

The first half of In The Grey is pretty procedural, with characters explaining their plans as they unfold, and most things seeming to work in easy fashion. Light relief is provided by Fisher Stevens’ perpetually exasperated lawyer (who works for Salazar), as he is easily outwitted by Rachel and her team.

A mid film shootout in a cafe is then slickly choreographed and indicative of the more muscular sequences that follow.

For while each of Rachel’s tactics prove successful in securing Salazar’s attention, it’s only belatedly that he gets really upset and strikes back, setting the stage for a last act rescue and chase that actually raises the stakes and injects any real sense of jeopardy into proceedings.

But even then, having finally really hooked us in, Ritchie brings things to an abrupt halt and finishes the film, which adds to the ever growing sense of underwhelm.

The overall feeling, therefore, is one of what might have been - Ritchie, as both writer and director, promising more than he delivers.

In the writing sense, in particular, his script promises much more than it delivers, offering a peak into an interesting world - ruled by shady financial institutions - that it never really delves deep enough into.

Hence, the grey morality suggested in the film’s title and set-up are never really explored - there’s no depth, little emotion and virtually no insight beyond the superficial.

This, in turn, deprives his cast of anything really meaningful to work with.

González and Pike share a couple of decent scenes but could have been afforded more to do as women operating in a predominantly male world, while the camaraderie between Gyllenhaal and Cavill, while decent, never really gets the time it deserves to develop into anything special.

There’s no complexity to the villains, either, with Bardem opting for pure pantomime over anything meaningful and Kristofer Hivju absolutely wasted as a sharp-shooting rival to Sid and Bronco. He is also dispatched far too easily.

One suspects there was more to do for Pike at one point but her character is never really fleshed out in the way that you feel she deserves, thereby depriving her of a really good villainous turn.

In terms of direction, Ritchie brings his usual flair. The action is muscular when it needs to be and well orchestrated. The final extended chase is suitably tense and exciting to watch and the one time in which the movie gets serious: with the sacrifice of one team member genuinely felt. It’s the only time that Gyllenhaal is really given anything to do that raises his game in response to it.

In The Grey is therefore a film that ends up feeling like a triumph of style over substance. It’s consistently watchable and even enjoyable for long periods but it does leave you feeling somewhat under nourished come the end.

Certificate: 15

Running time: 98mins