Too grey to be a Guy Ritchie hit.
Guy Ritchie’s latest crime caper “In the Grey” is a real missed opportunity that looks and acts stylish, but spends too much time on the plot and less on the characters and their elevations. He has collaborated wisely with Jake Gyllenhaal in “The Covenant,” Henry Cavill in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” and Eiza Gonzalez in “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” But like his last collaboration with Gonzalez in “Fountain of Youth,” we lose our interests in the caper and assume it has watched too many movies of its kind.
I like to imagine that in some parallel universe Steven Soderbergh is the director of “In the Grey,” because of how well he would handle the genre in the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies, “Logan Lucky,” and “Black Bag.” But in our universe, Guy Ritchie is the director, and I guess he had more fun making it than we would watching it.
Gonzalez plays a high debt collector named Rachel Wild, who hires two extraction specialists-Bronco Beauregard (Gyllenhaal) and Sid (Cavill)-to handle a plan to extract a billion dollar debt from the corrupt businessman Manny Salazar (Carlos Bardem, Javier’s older brother) owed to the shady New York banker Bobby Sheen (Rosamund Pike). They have a team of professionals, finances, tools, and transportation to get things rolling. And so far, their plan regards bankrupting his oil business, screwing with his lawyer William Horowitz (Fisher Stevens), and infiltrating his private island. Her plans are full of legal and illegal activities, and they’ll do whatever it takes to arrange a business meeting with Salazar.
But what isn’t a caper without a kidnapping or betrayal? In this case, Salazar has his right hand man Axel (Kristoffer Hivju) grab Rachel. That’s when Bronco and Sid come in with their team. And that’s when “In the Grey” has an exciting extraction and chase sequence near the end, which requites zip lining, secret doors, explosions, and gunfire.
Gyllenhaal and Cavill both have the kind of style and attitude to make them worthy of being in Danny Ocean’s team in an “Ocean’s Eleven” sequel. And Gonzalez has a certain tone and consistency that improves on her last Ritchie role in “Fountain of Youth.” But the problem with this movie regards the exhaustion from examining the plot and not developing the characters. They seem recycled from better movies of the genre, and their plot seems too easy to be breezy and fun. And there’s no humor or soundtrack to really elevate the caper.
Ritchie is a filmmaker who mostly knows how to channel different movie genres and add some spark into them, but he assumes too much in writing and directing “In the Grey.” A caper has to specialize in more than just the plot, the director, the cast, and the weaponry. It has to specialize in the daring and challenging nature to really draw us in. For most of the movie, the good guys have the upper hand and has Mr. Horowitz’s objections being overruled in court over and over again. I think you know what happens to him when Salazar fires him and has Axel take him in the helicopter.
The better crime thriller of recent memory is “Tuner,” which is about a young piano tuner with a hearing condition who becomes a safe cracker for a group of criminals. That’s coming to theaters soon, has more ambitions and originality, and is well worth your time. “In the Grey” may be directed by a stylish filmmaker and have a great cast, but it still has a familiar premise and predictable formulas. It might keep some movie goers occupied on a rainy afternoon, but it’s not really worth that trip to the theater.
