A lawyer specialising in debt recovery utilises a combination of legal and illegal methods to force particularly tough or slippery debtors to pay up. But her latest case has a personal element to it, as the debtor in question, who owes $1 billion, had her friend and mentor killed.
Guy Ritchie reunites with a selection of stars he has recently worked with in what turns out to be an annoyingly middling thriller. It's all very slick and stylish, but far from Ritchie's best work. The first half of In the Grey is more than a little exposition heavy, as it mostly sets up the wheres, whys, how and who of it all. I know the director of Snatch and Lock Stock enjoys a little voiceover in his movies, as the shots jump back and forth between someone in the know and the events they are describing, but this feels like some serious overindulgence. While the second is decidedly more action heavy - albeit with some fairly mediocre action. Aside from a tense shootout in a cafe, it's a little uninspired. Poorly choreographed gunplay, with little regard to tactics and cover (strange for supposedly elite operators), and surprisingly few reloads for the amount of gunfire. Leaving the whole thing feeling a tad amateurish.
It's not all bad, however. With Ritchie still managing to imbue the movie with some of his signature humour. Especially when it comes to the banter between our heroes. Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal arguably save the movie with their delightfully amusing back and forth. They are great together, and they make the relationship between Sid (Cavill) and Bronco (Gyllenhaal) not only funny, but believable - anyone who has worked in a close-knit team will know what I'm talking about. And the pair are able to extend this silliness - with a little help from Ritchie - to their team (Kojo Attah, Jason Wong, Emmett J. Scanlan, Christian Ochoa Lavernia), allowing them to be more than the average action movie supporting players. But what would a team be without its leader? Eiza González delivers a commanding performance as Rachel Wild. Making you believe that Rachel is a master of her craft, and that her team would go to the ends of the Earth for her.
As you'd expect, the joy that comes from In the Grey comes from seeing a bunch of conniving rich people get their comeuppances, and I'm not just talking about the guy who owes $1 billion. Too bad Rosamund Pike is wasted as the arrogant but somewhat inept banker who loaned Salazar the $1 billion in the first place. Carlos Bardem does, however, make it fun to watch his 'Manny Salazar' suffer a number of blows from Rachel and her team. The levels of perspiration it causes his lawyer (Fisher Stevens, A.K.A. Ben from Short Circuit) to suffer is also rather amusing. The trouble is, despite the fun banter, In the Grey doesn't really do anything new. For such a bold escapade, our heroes go over some very well-trodden action movie ground. There is nothing that sets it apart from other movies in the genre. Other than Kristofer Hivju's 'Olsson' - Salazar's head of security - being left with next to nothing to do. Add to that all the prep that we see Sid and Bronco’s team go through, along with the aforementioned overindulgent exposition, and the grand finale is robbed of any real surprise.
In the Grey has some fun moments and the banter between the leads is perfectly Guy Ritchie, but for an action thriller of such pedigree, it is annoyingly flat.
6/10
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