Based on a novel by Mark Greaney, the plot casts Ryan Gosling as the man of the title, a ruthless CIA assassin who kills all whites the agency cannot kill through formal means. He is the only survivor of a plan that two decades ago took murderers out of jail to turn them into hit men. While the others are dead or returned to jail, this gray man continues not only because of his efficiency but also because of certain scruples, such as not putting the lives of children at risk. Also, a couple of years earlier he was a custodian for a CIA chief’s orphaned niece. But after a complex New Year’s assignment in Thailand, he discovers that they’re making him exterminate not the bad guys but the good guys, and in the process he gets a base for all the agency’s dirty operations. There appears the surprise of the film, Chris Evans, playing a psychopath capable of anything, such as kidnapping that teenager so that the rebellious murderer turns himself in.
It is difficult to do new things in action and spy movies, since almost everything is in the James Bond saga and then repeated in later films with a higher budget and digital effects. The Russos know this, and when in the second massacre of the film on board a plane they throw their antihero without a parachute, copying the beginning of “Moonraker”, they put a wink with some musical chords that recall the theme of 007. But then , as the dizzying two hours progress, they put together new things, starting with the masterful chase and shootout aboard a tram through the streets of Prague. Precisely one of the strong points are the locations, such as the Croatian castle of the denouement while the villain shouts, “you are making me destroy a historical place!”.
The photography is stunning and the use of old pop songs is clever, as is the inclusion of excellent supporting actors like Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Woodward. The only Netflix touch that lowers the general level is that for so much ultraviolence, the absence of gore becomes a bit forced.
“The Gray Man” (“The Gray Man”, USA-Czech Republic, 2022) Dir.: A. and J. Russo. Int.: R. Gosling, C. Evans, BB Thornton. (Netflix).
Source: Ambito
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