The Gray Man Movie Review: Ryan Gosling-Chris Evans Land Clumsy Blows in Russo Bros’ Ordinary Spy Thriller; Dhanush’s Cameo Makes Very Late Impact (LatestLY Exclusive)

The Gray Man Movie Review: So The Gray Man is an action spy thriller, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. Coming to Netflix with humongous expectations considering it is made by the directors of some of Marvel's best movies, including Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, The Gray Man is also stacked with an exciting roster of cast members, led by a dashing Ryan Gosling and an enjoyably smarmy Chris Evans with his much-talked about 'trash'-stache. All in all, The Gray Man should have been a enjoyable offering from Netflix, so it is a huge disappointment that it isn't always so. The Gray Man: Director Joe Russo Compares Netflix to A 'Tech Company', Says 'They're Hands-Off' During Production.

Blame it on Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible movies for raising the benchmarks of spy thrillers so high. Or actually, you can blame Russo Bros themselves for making a fine spy thriller in the MCU itself with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (one of my most fave movies in the franchise). Winter Soldier was the film that cemented the director siblings as the future of MCU then, and unfortunately, the very same movie also keeps coming up for comparison when The Gray Man hits the lows quite often. Not even a glorified Dhanush cameo can cheer you up by the time the dust settles on this big budget near-crash.

Gosling plays a CIA agent code-named Six, who is part of their nearly defunct program called Sierra. During an assassination mission entrusted by Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), Six stumbles upon a dark secret of CIA in form of a pen drive and finds himself a fugitive from his own organisation. Denny assigns Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a sociopathic private contractor, to track Six down and extract the drive from him, while Six gets unexpected assistance from fellow CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) resulting in a high voltage chase across countries and continents.

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The plotline of The Gray Man is nothing but rehashing the basic storylines you might have seen and seen and seen more in franchises like James Bond, Jason Bourne and even Mission: Impossible. How many times will Cinema continue to smash thin the story of any spy needing to run away from his or her own organisation, I have no clue. On top of that, there is also a subplot involving Six caring about Claire (Julia Butters), the teenage niece of his former boss (Billy Bob Thornton) who is unwell and has a pacemaker, which addles to the already cliched main plotline. In a way, The Gray Man feels like a mashup of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Extraction, both being Russos' products. Neither of the derivative plotlines are developed much to brings anything fresh or stand out in any manner. (PS: the last scene of The Gray Man also reminded me of the final scene of Russos' Civil War)

But hey, the cliched plot(s) hardly would matter if the Russos would have packed plenty of good thrills and enjoyable action scenes. In that aspect, The Gray Man sparks interest here and there, but never going full tilt on it. The most exciting scene in the film is the extended shootout and chase sequence that demolishes half the city down. The scene clearly would have made for a nice big screen experience - like the Malta dino chase scene in Jurassic World Dominion, so I am a little surprised that Russo Bros went for direct Netflix release with The Gray Man. Only noticeable problem, however, with this scene, and this goes for all the action scenes in the movie, is the hyper-frenetic editing that doesn't allow you to savour the stunts, and some very dodgy CGI.

The Gray Man works best when it allows its actors to have fun with their roles. Gosling brings a lot of charm with his action persona, delivering dry wit but without going overboard. The running gag is him dealing with his injuries with a joke here and there, but the way how Gosling underplays the jokes means it is somewhat effective, even if the movie's general humour is quite often bland and tiring. Like for example, there is an exchange between Six and Dani about throwing loaded guns that doesn't land its punchline even if the joke gets a callback in another crucial scene. Aamir Khan Treats Russo Brothers, Dhanush and The Gray Man Team With Gujarati Dinner at His Mumbai Residence.

Chris Evans, meanwhile, is having a blast with his negative role. His character feels like an extension of what he did in Knives Out, only this time, he gets more weapons, more power and facial hair to play along with his sociopathic tendencies. His Lloyd is like a dangerous warhead, whose maniacal and trigger-happy ways are never clearly explained and often feel repetitive which makes him irritating after a point, but Evans' greasy performance more than makes up for the flaws. Just watch the scene where he voices his annoyance at how his men couldn't shoot down a handcuffed Six. It feels like a fourth wall break where he is merely echoing exactly my frustrated thoughts on how the whole scene is panning out.

Ana de Armas - my fave new actress in H-Town - has quite a lot to do in the action scenes. Her Dani is the Black Widow to Gosling's 'Captain America' here. However, the lack of background, the way she plays her character too straight and a clear lack of buddy chemistry with Gosling don't make her role stand out, the way her limited screentime did in No Time to Die. In fact, at times, I keep having this feeling that she has been shoehorned into the narrative just so that it does remain a sheer battle of testosterones.

Regé-Jean Page does well as the obviously dubious CIA head, but is used very sparingly in the second half. As his fellow counterpart with a comparatively more-existent moral compass, Jessica Henwick gets to shine too late in the final act of the film. I believe that both have a bigger role to play perhaps in the upcoming sequels and expansions of the movie, but here their characters feel getting shortchanged. This also applies to Dhanush, whose character is left unnamed - though I smiled when Lloyd refers to him as his 'sexy Tamil friend' -  but the end-credits show his name as 'Avik San'. Dhanush has two action scenes, where his martial arts skills impress, though as an actor, he hardly gets to do much except look very serious. Even if I was a little disappointed with his cameo here and the film itself, I am all for the spinoff on Avik San!

Yay!

- The Prague Scene

- Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans

Nay!

- Underdeveloped Writing and Characters

- Frenetic Editing and Dodgy CGI

Final Thoughts

The Gray Man can be viewed as a passable action entertainer by those who have liked Netflix's similar past fare in 6 Underground, Red Notice and The Old Guard. The film works best when Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans get to have fun with their characters. Otherwise, though, coming from the skills of the Russo Bros, The Gray Man ends up being utterly ordinary and forgettable, while laying a dubious plan for an expansive future. The Gray Man is streaming on Netflix.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 22, 2022 12:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).