Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Cast: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Regé-Jean Page, Julia Butters, Dhanush. 15, 120 minutes.
Why did all of Anthony and Joe Russo’s post-Marvel movies feel so apologetic? Her work on two of the Captain America films plus Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, helped shape a franchise so culturally widespread that it’s become almost impossible to separate Robert Downey Jr. from Iron Man or Chris Hemsworth from Thor. It seems the directors now feel they owe their actors some sort of escape plan — a way out of all that spandex-lined baggage. Saw Tom Holland in her 2021 movie cherry, where he played a PTSD-stricken, drug-addicted veteran, shake off our association with Spider-Man? Not really, but the attempt was made. And what about Chris Evansour former Captain America, with a cop mustache and a murderous temper The gray man? nope!
He plays Lloyd Hansen, a CIA mercenary sent to destroy his own colleague Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) after receiving the wrong information at the wrong time. Hansen sucks lollipops, yells at his minions for not keeping their phones on mute while he’s in the middle of the torture session, and cracks little jokes like, “Don’t say supernatural, it’s an asshole world.” We know he’s meant to be unbalanced because people often talk about how unbalanced he is. It is sociopathy as a quirk. A costume. An exaggerated wink and nod to the audience that we’ve never seen Captain America like this. But we have. Evans performed the same Bratty Shtick under the acute direction of Rian Johnson in 2019 to much greater effect knife out. Even before Marvel, he had already nailed the role of a weaponized jerk back in the 2010s Scott pilgrim vs the world.
The gray man, then feels like a sweaty, desperate attempt to prove a point that has never been questioned. As a result, it appears oddly limp and airless, one of those Netflix‘s $200M Action Movies (to the Red notice) that are on their landing page today and will be instantly forgotten tomorrow. His quips have been transplanted from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a big way – with a few extra “f***s”. When Gentry explains he’s nicknamed Six because “007 was taken,” it seems like an embarrassed admission of how much The gray man was cobbled together from other sources.
Billy Bob Thornton’s Donald Fitzroy tracks Gentry to prison and offers to commute his sentence as long as he agrees to be trained by the CIA and made into a hitman. Once he’s gone rogue, Hansen is mobilized and the hunt begins as these characters traipse through every single international city that I think offers tax breaks for film production: Bangkok, Vienna, Berlin, Prague.
Everything looks so smooth and empty that it’s impossible to distinguish a scene from your standard luxury hotel display. The hollowness of the green screen gives way to the slightest nod John Wick‘s trademark gun-fu, while the Russians employ far too many frenetic, swooping drone shots, as if The gray man were her thesis on how movement means excitement (it doesn’t). The film accidentally throws in a “lone wolf and cub” narrative at one point by saddling Gentry with Fitzroy’s granddaughter (Once upon a time in Hollywoodby Julia Butters). She developed an incidental emotional bond with a Crosley vinyl player just so she could DJ Mark Lindsay’s Silver Bird in an action scene. Meanwhile, the women of The gray man – Anne of ArmsJessica Henwick and Alfre Woodard – fret over how these reckless boys and their big guns could ruin their own reputations.
Regé-Jean Page as CIA chief Denny Carmichael feels he’s been offered the same blanket deal as Evans: If you look sternly into glasses, start screaming in an office toilet, and bang a hand towel dispenser a few times, you will all forgotten were ever The Duke in Bridgeton. Here, too, it doesn’t quite work to work in concert against the grain.
The film also shoots itself in the foot by pitting Evans and Page against the likes of Gosling – an actor who has always been so naturally and excitingly unpredictable on screen that he only needs to raise a single eyebrow for his character to feel like one feels real danger. The same goes for Tamil cinema superstar Dhanush, who appears in a sharp-cut suit at the end of the film. He exudes such an irrepressible confidence that when he comes out of the frame you kind of hope he’ll take the whole movie with him. The gray man really needed a little more of that unteachable cool.
The Gray Man hits select theaters July 15 and is available to stream on Netflix July 22
