In an unsurprising turn for his filmography, Guy Ritchie has assembled another ragtag group of high-testosterone dudes to suavely take down an intimidating, yet arrogant enemy. With one or two outliers, Ritchie seems to be content making practically the same movie roughly once a year to tepid response since about 2015. Yet, people (like myself) continue to come out to these with pretty set mid-level expectations of action. For fans of that routine, In the Grey falls perfectly into that slot.
In the Grey has this strange thing where the movie is simultaneously all plot and no plot at all. Starting off with loads of exposition from Eiza González’s lead lawyer, Rachel Wild, we’re given a full rundown on how corporations earn back assets from disreputable customers. This introduces us to cartel leader, Salazar (Carlos Bardem) and the woman aiming to get her company’s money back, Bobby Sheen (Rosamund Pike).
Through some elaborate and over-stylized expounding on how Wild’s team operates in between the legal and illegal to force an outcome (If the title In the Grey wasn’t obvious enough for you), we meet the main operators and the real reason people came to see this movie. Jake Gyllenhaal as Bronco and Henry Cavill as Sidney come as a dynamic action duo that becomes the easy selling point of In the Grey.
The two fall into some expected roles with Gyllenhaal as the talker and command with Cavill on a quiet, but charming beat. Their chemistry works simply in the case of their charisma, but any semblance of comedic writing would’ve been appreciated. This is where it gets into the “no plot” range, as anything character-driven or emotion-focused is essentially absent from this entire experience. If you were hoping for any sort of character development or investment either, this isn’t that kind of movie.
And while it’s one thing to keep your focus on a narrative, this doesn’t make it all too easy for you. It eventually becomes obviously clear what this team’s goal is and the problems they’ll come to face, but Ritchie as a writer feels the need to overload this story with blatant narration and constant plot reassurances. Taking notes from the Netflix Original playbook, it feels like we’re constantly having to be told everything that’s happening as it’s happening, making this narrative seem overwhelming instead of its actual simplicity.
As for the action, this is where the meager entertainment value of In the Grey comes from. After it finally arrives, we’re able to see Ritchie’s directing chops to keep gunfights exciting. One sequence at about the midpoint in a restaurant is a great example of tense action with strong execution. I just wish that that was able to keep up through the rest of this runtime.
Though momentarily engaging, most of the action here is gunplay. In closer quarters, this becomes more exciting, but this whole finale is just a shootout that doesn’t express skill and talent the way that movies like John Wick or Heat have been able to manage. The total lack of close-quarter combat keeps these sequences stale after a while. Thankfully, Ritchie shoots on location and uses a great amount of action practicality, but it’s unfortunately not enough to get the “cool factor” of this movie where it needs to be.
The real sin of In the Grey is its banality towards the current social perspective on billionaires and corporations. This movie takes place between the finances of both parties, and while attempting to shame the two by the end, it doesn’t find any genuine heart or humanity within this operational story. In that sense, it leaves you cold and with nothing to take with you. It manages both an all-too-easy forgettability and a passive enjoyment. As May movies go, you could certainly do better than this one for this weekend, but I guess you could also do worse.
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