The Gray Man
Starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas
Starring MA15+
4/5
The Gray Man is an exciting and refined action movie directed by the Russo Brothers.
After receiving dangerous classified information, elite CIA assassin Six (Ryan Gosling) finds himself hunted by unhinged private contractor Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans).
The Gray Man is an entertaining throwback to nineties action cinema, with a morally-grey but golden-hearted hero, an over-the-top villain, a sassy female co-star, a plucky child character and ample destruction, but with the harsh, rough-edged fight choreography of John Wick and Extraction.
Gosling plays a stolid badass with a fun note of dry humour. Ana de Armas further proves herself as a rising action star as Dani, Six’s beleaguered ally. Evans is clearly having fun as a smug, preening villain, amusingly playing against his heroic type for the second time (the first time being Rian Johnson’s Knives Out). Six’s protective bond with young Claire Fitzroy (Julia Butters) provides the film’s touching emotional core.
The action sequences are tense and frenetic, with an emphasis on fast, efficient moves and realistic fatigue. The action also frequently makes creative use of setting and props, with dynamic scuffles in a fireworks display, a crumbling plane and a speeding tram (respectively).
Unfortunately, while the action sees clever use of individual settings, the pacing jumps to new locations in a very disorienting manner. As with Thor: Love and Thunder, The Gray Man is another example of the lazy Macguffin plot device: the characters are motivated by a memory drive, but the contents of the drive barely matter.
As a Russo Brothers production, Extraction is better – the plot is more focused and the action is more plentiful – but The Gray Man is still a very entertaining film with solid characters and action.
The Gray Man will have a limited cinema run before streaming exclusively on Netflix.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
