On Guy's grey zone

Or watching more Ritchie kontent

For some reason, I keep watching Guy Ritchie films, and quite liking them.

I am not sure what that says about me or his work. But there it is.

The other night I came across yet another of his new releases, In the Grey, and ended up watching it all the way through. It was fine, perfectly digestible; it zipped along at a terrific pace, was well shot & blocked, and everyone was exceedingly well dressed. Moreover, all involved seemed to be enjoying themselves, not least the director.

It wasn’t a great film, but it certainly wasn't the worst thing I’ve seen this year — that would have to be the overhyped, unscary and ‘flat-packed’ Backrooms. Nor the best; both Köln 75 and The President’s Cake are unmissable, IMHO.

Krankin’ out da kontent

A while ago I posted about two of Ritchie’s earlier efforts and his Stakhanovitian levels of output: his Indiana Jones rip-off ‘Hope springs Eternal’ (or something); and his camp Second World War romp about SOE, and butch chaps with beards. Much of the ensemble cast is recycled from these earlier efforts; Henry Cavill and Eiza González are staples, plus a couple of less talented siblings, Jake Gyllenhaal¹ and Carlos Bardem (that’s a tad unfair, but still).

There’s no Jason Statham in this one, which is a shame as their Wrath of Man (2021) is really pretty good, so in lieu of that here’s a video of him dancing in his gold pants, well, just because…

González might well be one of the most talented actors of her generation, but you wouldn’t know that from her appearances in Ritchie films. She’s underused, and she’s even left out of some of the promotional material. González gets more lines in this one than usual, but still seems wasted.

There is a great scene where she makes a lovely-looking ‘stovetop negroni svegliato’ while talking about something else; I probably missed exactly what, because I was busy looking up what a stovetop negroni svegliato was. Anyway, she makes one with great panache.

A scene from the film

It’s also quite noticeable that although she’s also an extremely attractive woman, none of the other characters in Ritchie’s movies ever seem attracted to her. This was taken to extremes in his earlier SOE flick, as I noted, and here she’s referred to as 'mother’ (I’ve no idea).

Of course, actors don’t have to play to stereotypes and women shouldn’t be objectified, but I can’t quite work out what her role in these films is supposed to be, apart from a glorified clotheshorse. Maybe Ritchie doesn’t know either.

As before, the real attraction on screen is between the lead male characters, Cavill and Gyllenhaal. They would have made a lovely couple, although yet again Ritchie misses a trick, especially given Gyllenhaal's earlier starring role in one of the greatest love stories ever committed to film.

I, for one, can only hope Ritchie eventually gets to grips with these subtexts, and makes a proper romance. Maybe he should remake Joe R. Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard series.

Anyhoo…

The ‘Plot’

So what’s it all about? Well, here’s the official spiel:

In The Grey follows a covert team of elite operatives who live in the global shadows, as comfortable wielding power and influence as they are automatic weapons and high explosives. When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, the team is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. What begins as an impossible heist gets much worse, spiraling into an all-out war of strategy, deception and survival.²

Essentially González is a lawyer who recovers stolen money for another lawyer, Rosamund Pike, and then takes a cut. That’s essentially it, and yes, she does. Although she’s highly effective in courtrooms and gets all the bad guys' (Badem) assets impounded, González also employs a black ops krew led by Henry and Jake, named Sid and Bronco, who do a lot of murdering as they go along. And I mean a lot of murdering, like loads. This proves useful after González is double-crossed by Pike or someone else and then kidnapped. They release her, and murder lots of people.

Overall, the plot seems much the same as Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, and it doesn’t really matter because it was all done well. It was nothing too complex, nor clever, but 90 minutes of enjoyable action hokum.

Dick jokes

In addition to all the inventive murdering, there are a lot of dick jokes in the film, like a lot. Not to be prudish, as I enjoy a good dick joke as much as the next person, but there were so many it started to get a bit ‘odd’. Perhaps this explains González’s restrained demeanour in these films.

There were other oddities too. Pike has a scene where she’s in full business clobber in her office, on a treadmill with headphones on, sweating profusely… why?

At another point, Cavill steals a sombrero, shouts “Oi-Oi” very loudly, and then urinates on a policeman’s shoes to distract attention. That’s fine, I suppose, but it’s mentioned again when he’s released from the local jail, for no reason other than, I suppose, the unabashed joys of urolagnia.

Bond bound?

So that’s that. If you’re at a loose end and want something to fill up an hour and a half of your time, then this is for you.

On which note, I was thinking if Denis Villeneuve’s James Bond reboot for MGM-Amazon works out, maybe they could let Ritchie do the next one.

1. I am not sure what’s going on with the action man films Gyllenhaal keeps making, most of which are fairly mediocre for an actor of his talents.

2. Feel free to explore the utterly lacklustre official website, https://inthegrey.film/