It’s fitting that one of the most overlooked movies of 2012 featured easy-to-miss excellence by an actor whose face was still difficult to place. The Grey was an unexpected masterpiece of a sort. Many who have revisited the film have written at length about its sorry lack of recognition for its depiction of a compelling and gritty survival tale anchored by a lead who we seem to have forgotten is a phenomenal actor, Liam Neeson. Director Joe Carnahan has been praised for the intensity with which he portrayed the survival efforts of the oil drilling team in the face of terrifying wolves as their nemeses.
The casting in this movie seems to be one of its most surprising strengths, with Dallas Roberts, whom you may know from The Walking Dead and another Rubicon alumnus, supporting Neeson as part of his wolf pack. James Badge Dale doesn’t enjoy very much screen time at all in this, but it’s a good demonstration of the way he can demand an audience’s attention without expending a lot of effort or emotion. His brief moments with Neeson are felt for the duration of the movie, made possible by the mark Dale leaves on the audience.
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