Based on the novel by Mark Greaney, The Gray Man is about two CIA covert assassins who get involved in a bloody face-off with each other. This sort of agent is referred to as the “gray man” because he does the job quietly and unobtrusively. He then fades away until he’s given his next assignment. Like James Bond, a gray man is licensed to kill though he isn’t given the perks Agent 007 enjoys—no Aston Martin and no Bond girls named Pussy Galore.
But they also use a code name. Ryan Gosling plays Sierra 6, who’s been tasked by superiors to eliminate a target in Bangkok. He accomplishes the mission but he soon learns that his victim was a colleague, Sierra 4. In his possession is an encrypted flash drive containing information that can expose the evils their superior does. Sierra 4 was on the verge of blowing the whistle. Unfortunately, our movie hero prevented that from happening.
Thus Sierra 6 goes rogue and sends the flash drive to a retired peer in Eastern Europe. By doing this, he becomes a target himself. The nefarious superior (played by Rege-Jean Page) hires a former CIA assassin to capture and kill Sierra 6 and retrieve the flash drive.
This hit man, now working freelance, was kicked out of the CIA for the unorthodox ways he does his job. He never misses his target but the collateral damage is often high. However, he’s the only man who can beat Sierra 6. Played by Chris Evans, he isn’t the gray man he was trained to be. He’s loud and flamboyant, and is just an inch away from being a dynamic guest villain in the old Batman TV series. He’s less gray and more gay, in the old traditional sense.
Gosling seems to be channeling Clint Eastwood of spaghetti westerns
In contrast, Ryan Gosling seems to be channeling Clint Eastwood when the latter was doing spaghetti westerns. The cowboys Eastwood played were men of few words. They let the guns do the talking. Gosling’s gray man persona is a radical change from the cocky teen-aged boy (played by Cameron Crovetti) Sierra 6 was. This says a lot about the way the CIA trains its hit men. It’s as if the recruits were lobotomized prior to graduation.
The Gray Man is said to be the most expensive Netflix movie. It seems that much of the huge budget went to star power and filming scenes of carnage. The film was penned by three screenwriters, one of them Joe Russo who also directed the film with his brother Anthony Russo. Both are Marvel movie stalwarts. This high profile team directed Evans in the Captain America movies.
The Gray Man is just another espionage thriller. It isn’t a bad movie, it’s just we’ve seen the kind several times, in the Bourne franchise and the Mission: Impossible franchise. The Russo brothers didn’t take this genre to a higher level—not even a small step up. They also didn’t create a distinct flavor that could have set their movie apart from the rest. It’s watchable but not compelling enough for us to root for the hero.
The filmmakers do step up the action, especially when the streets of a picturesque town in Croatia are turned into a war zone with heavily armed CIA covert agents battling the Austrian S.W.A.T. And thankfully, the movie benefits from the limited use of humorous wisecracks, all of which are reserved only for Chris Evans. At one point, he amusingly refers to Sierra 6 as that “Ken Doll.” Disappointingly, Goslin isn’t given the chance to retaliate. But it would have been out of character for Sierra 6, and out of step for the movie itself.
These two superstars are supported by a distinguished cast. Aside from Rege-Jean Page, the cast includes Anna de Armas as an agent who sides with Sierra 6. Armas is the “It Girl” of the 2020s (Knives Out, Deep Water), yet in The Gray Man, the charms of this leading lady have been diluted.
Also on hand are Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodward, two respected thespians who play retired CIA personnel and who do Yoda duties by sharing their wisdom with Sierra 6. Both actors make the movie seem important even if they’re obviously slumming it.
But the movie is all about Ryan Gosling in this corner and Chris Evans in the opposite corner. Well, their final confrontation ends in what is the equivalent of two rounds. Climactic confrontations between enemies have always been highly dramatic. Darth Vader and Obi Wan come to mind. (“I’ve been waiting for you Obi Wan. We meet again at last.”)
Meeting face-to-face at last, Gosling and Evans aren’t made to do or say anything cathartic, or memorable that could have made The Gray Man an enduring movie. On a positive note, the all-out brawl between Gosling and Evans is well choreographed and slickly edited.
It’s been reported that The Gray Man is just the beginning of another major movie franchise. There are more books to adapt so the creation of The Gray Man universe is imminent. Let’s hope the next movie can live up to the hype, or at least be something that I can watch and finish in just one sitting.
Credit: Netflix/YouTube
