The Gray Man is Damn Good-Go Watch It
It’s smart and it continues Chris Evans’ trend of having way too much fun playing bad guys, and I am here for it!
(sigh) I am finding it amusing that every article I see declaring that “The Gray Man was not what Netflix needed” is immediately flooded by comments saying how great the movie was. Of course I saw similar things with Six Underground and Red Notice and Extraction, which makes it even funnier when people complain that Netflix hasn’t “made a good action movie in a while”, uuum okay, sure.
Let’s focus on Gray Man and why I loved it. First, I didn’t expect an amazing plot. Hello, this is a pure action movie, very few have amazing plots, that isn’t the genre and if you go into it thinking “Wow, this will have a totally unique and unexpected plot” you’re going to be disappointed. I am a fan of both kinds of action movies, but this was not and was never billed as a complex plot kind of movie.
What I did expect was fun, I did expect to see Chris Evans loving every second of being a bad guy, I did expect some kickass fight scenes, good camera work (because it’s the Russo brothers) and a good time. I got all that and even some subtle surprises that made the fight scenes unique and gave them a bit more realism and personality in a way. And the other thing I got, or rather DIDN’T get, was sexualizing of women or a ridiculous shoehorned romance between a male and female lead. Something I am not seeing mentioned in reviews or comments.
That’s right, there is NO “Oh he’s hurt, I am so sympathetic, let’s fuck” scene. Shocking, right?
Let’s start with Six — Aka Ryan Gosling. Six could easily have been a bland character to watch. He’s meant to be a low emotion, somewhat one note character but Ryan does an amazing job of doing small things in his performance to convey the feelings that Six has. Things like awkwardly shifting his weight when talking to Claire, the teenaged niece of Billy Bob Thornton’s character Fitzroy. Subtle intonation changes, facial expressions and physical acting choices that convey clearly how he feels about whatever is going on. There is a great bit of writing when talking to Claire when she’s doing what teens tend to do, asking rapid fire questions to try to get a reaction, and she asks about Six’s tattoo. When he explains the meaning and how it is linked to Sisyphus you can see the struggle he’s dealing with and how he very much identifies with that myth, and it is not huge acting choices, it’s small, and perfectly in character for the role he’s playing.
The other lovely little surprises sprinkled throughout the movie is how Six staying alive through all the insane action is shown to not be just plot armor. You know the scenes where the hero is running through thousands of rounds being shot from machine guns and somehow miraculously survives without a scratch? Yeah, in this movie there are multiple times where they give a logical reason why Six would survive based on moves and choices he makes that show he is using things around him in an intelligent way. I am a huge sucker for smart action scenes, and this movie is chock full of them.
There is also a FANTASTIC moment where Evans’ character Lloyd makes a just on the edge of meta but not quite there comment regarding how none of his hired mercs are hitting Six even though they are literally destroying an entire plaza with gunfire. I really wonder if it was something Chris came up with in the moment because it’s so damn funny.
One other nice touch is how Six repeatedly uses the environment to give him an edge. You can tell he is always thinking, adjusting and adapting to the scenario and it makes things more intriguing. There is a spot where he’s about to fire blindly through the top of a tram/lightrail car to take out bad guys and he realizes he can use the reflections of the windows they are passing as a way to make his aim more effective. It’s subtle, it’s perfect and it shows that the Russos and their fight choreographers were thinking things through, not just blandly setting up a fight scene.
The relationship between Six and Claire is also well written. I won’t get too far into it to avoid spoilers but once again, it’s subtle and hits a lot of feels if you’re willing to pay attention to it.
Moving on to Lloyd — aka Chris Evans. For one, I think that like his sweater from Knives Out, the striped shirt from this movie will become a sex symbol on it’s own. Seriously.
Evans, from the moment you see him, just exudes fun…and you know you’re not supposed to be thinking that the guy who is torturing someone is fun, but, he is. Too many times the sociopath/psychopath character feels like a caricature, predictable in their acting choices and overplayed. I am not sure if it was the years of watching Hiddleston play Loki or what but Evans nails this sweet spot between dangerous, funny, chaotic and terrifying and he does it with ease. Like you want to hate Lloyd, but you can’t, he’s just so delicious to watch. There’s this constant undertone of Lloyd is utterly twisted and he’s just fine with that. There is no dark back story to him, not that we see anyway, but that he thrives in the chaos he brings; he’s arrogant and a complete dick, but you never tire of seeing him. He never drags down a scene with angst, nor overplays the ego or cruelty. It’s pitch perfect, every single time.
Now onto the main criticism I see, the plot. Yes. It’s thin, it’s one we’ve seen a million times before. Who cares? This is more of a character and action driven movie and if you were looking for complex plot, go watch something like Inception.
Moving on from the plot to the ladies in the film. Much of the criticisms I see make some sort of comment as to how Ana de Armas did her best with what she had, was underused or just felt like she wasn’t needed.
I want to talk about how they used her in a non-tropish, non-standard and respectful way. To start, she’s the character that in most action type movies would have the “Oh he’s hurt, he has such a caring heart under all that machismo, let’s fuck” scene. She doesn’t have that scene, no one does. As a matter of fact, she’s the character that makes it immediately clear that the women in this movie are not going to be fucked, or fucked with at all. She does it in one line, “Please remove yourself from my personal space.” The scene is the standard corrupt boss leaning on the underling to try to get them to take the fall for shitty things the corrupt boss did. She never blinks, never flinches and backs the boss off fast with that line. A line which he throws back at her later when roles are reversed and she’s threatening him, which is an interesting subtext.
Continuing on the discussion of how she is non-sexualized. Her attire, even in the opening scenes at a party is never of the half naked kind, she is given acknowledgement for how often she saves Six’s life and he never once looks, interacts or in any way indicates that he thinks that she is sexually attractive and a conquest to be made. The same goes for the character of Suzanne played by Jessica Henwick. She is never male gazed either. It’s beyond refreshing.
I won’t go on too much longer here as I do not want to spoil any plots or fun things that you can enjoy.
What I will end with is this. Go watch it, watch for the differences, watch for the subtleties and you will love this movie. Ignore the haters and make up your own mind. Watch movies with no pre-set expectations, it’s much more fun that way.
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