The Gray Man review: The Avengers directors can’t think small enough

What kind of filmmakers are Anthony and Joe Russo when they aren’t making Marvel movies? The directing team behind the largest and most profitable Avengers films, as well as the blockbusters most lucrative. Everyday) the pair seem to have carte blanche to pursue their interests, and they’ve partnered with streamers who are happy to get out of their way and let them follow whatever muse they like. The film was their first post-Marvel production. Cherry, released on Apple TV Plus, applied their blockbuster sensibilities to a story that didn’t really need it: the opioid crisis. The film was a spectacle-driven drama about an unsolvable tragedy. Perhaps that wasn’t a fluke.

They are currently working with Netflix. The Russos follow up Gray ManIt’s an adaptation of the airport thriller that seems oddly suited for them. It’s adapted from the first novel in Mark Greaney’s long-running series about Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six, the eponymous Gray Man. Ryan Gosling portrays Gentry. This is the first time that audience meets Gentry in prison. A prologue that takes place years before the main story is set, top CIA spook Donald Fitzroy, played by Billy Bob Thornton, recruits Gentry for the job of killing anyone the CIA orders him to. Gentry is freed in return. The plot is now in motion, as Gentry must answer a question about his career: “How does one man retire from work?”

It’s baffling that two of the most commercially successful directors in Hollywood apparently cannot make a film as compelling as that question. This is not an attack on Gray Man’s plot. While it’s rote, it mostly exists to support an efficient action movie. The starting line is where Sierra Six declines to take a shot at the kill because there are children nearby. Instead, Six takes down his target using messy hand-tohand fighting. This leads to a conversation where Six learns that he’s being sent after his fellow assassins. The Sierra unit members are all working alone, and they do not know one another. When he’s given an SD card with something his new boss at the CIA doesn’t want anyone to have, Six is forced to go rogue and maybe uncover a government conspiracy.

Ana de Armas approaches Ryan Gosling in a fancy restaurant in Netflix’s The Gray Man

There isn’t a single original idea here, and that’s fine! This is the appeal of films like Gray Man lies in HowMore than WhatThe cast and crew collaborate to produce exciting action sequences. Unfortunately, the Russos’ style, full of bombastic excess and barely funny quips, gets in their way. There are well-conceived sequences here — every fight scene is framed against the most compelling backdrop possible. There’s an early fight during a fireworks display, and a mid-movie scrap between Six and some heavily armed goons where all he has is a daytime road flare that outlines his movements in smoke, or a flashlight that illuminates one blow at a time. The viewers have very limited opportunities to see the striking staging, and more important, the acting.

Gray ManIt escalates so much that the performers end up being secondary to what is happening, rather than acting as the focus. It is impossible to believe that drones can fly over and underneath locations, leaving viewers confused rather than grounded. Film feels like a movie about disasters and the collateral damage that comes with them. As the drama escalates, the main characters are made to seem superhuman.

Realism isn’t necessarily the problem here; dissonance is. Gray Man is a story about assassins who are, we’re told, the very best in the world. Yet, their work is a joke. They are a catalyst for international events. They start small civil wars on the streets. They have difficulty holding small girls hostage.

Chris Evans stands with a handgun pointed downward in Netflix’s The Gray Man

It is worse because many of these actors are talented and have to be second to the bloodshed. Opposite Gosling is MCU (and Russo) alum Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen, a freelance “sociopathic” assassin who Six’s handlers hire to lead the manhunt for him when he goes rogue. As Lloyd, Evans gets to dial things up to late-’90s levels of John Travolta-esque camp. If Evans and Gosling were allowed to screen together, it could be a great movie. Unfortunately for the majority of viewers, this is not true. Gray ManEvans oversees a control room Others people’s attempts to kill Six, often ranting to other characters over the radio.

Similarly underutilized are Jessica Henwick (the secret best part of Netflix and Marvel’s maligned Iron FistSeries) Knives out’s Ana de Armas. Six worked with the operative and he decides that CIA wanted him to die. The former is the government minder meant to “officially” oversee Lloyd Hansen’s mission to kill Sierra Six, which ultimately means Lloyd gets to berate and overstep Henwick’s character, knowing she’ll take the fall if things go south. They’re both action stars in their own right, and while de Armas gets a couple of good fights, Henwick’s character feels like an afterthought in a film that should have engaged with both of them more. But they feel more present.

We have less Gray Man would’ve made for so much more. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo have received quiet praise early in their careers for bringing an unorthodox level of flair and panache into quirky sitcoms like The CommunityAnd Have a happy ending. They were once capable of displaying spectacle for the sake of characters. They became famous for presenting casual disaster, which was less appealing without the support of a stable of heroes to help them. It’s even less charming when “casual catastrophe” is the best phrase to describe how their films feel.

Gray ManPremieres in theatres Friday, July 15th and is available on Netflix on July 22.