Movie Review: In the Grey

If Operation Fortune and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was Guy Ritchie relaxing with a beachside margarita, In the Grey is him doing bumps in a bathroom stall before giving the keynote address at some exotic business conference. Through a frantic string of monologues that detail schemes, contingences and the supplies needed to make them happen, Ritchie manages to make a movie about a lawyer (Eiza Gonzalez) and the team of shooters and saboteurs led by Henry Cavil and Jake Gyllenhaal she uses to extract debt from unsavory delinquent clients embarking on a very tough job where their target is a powerful crime lord (Carlos Bardem) who resides on a remote island where he controls damn near everything far more of a chore to follow than it should be. Gonzalez, Cavil and Gyllenhaal-who have all worked with Ritchie on other projects recently-know how to dispense the quips Ritchie chucked at them three minutes before the cameras rolled with enough deadpan swagger to make them convincing, but these zingers being delivered effectively doesn't mean all that much when they mainly serve as a way to break up the all of the breathless musings that are driving the plot. The arrival of shootouts, chases and huge explosions in the final act feels strangely tranquil as it forces the characters to practice brevity when they speak and mercifully allows the brainless macho shit that Ritchie has become particularly fond of doing in recent years to become the star of the show. Once this big extended action setpiece wraps up, there's about 5 more minutes of narrative housekeeping to be done and the credits start rolling. Ending things on such an efficient, high octane note made the sometimes-grating nature of the first 2/3 of the film easier to swallow and powered In the Grey into the respectably decent territory that Ritchie has often found himself since he turned into a machine that refuses to take time off post-Wrath of Man.

Grade: B-