Did You Know IN THE GREY is the Sixth Guy Ritchie Movie in Five Years?

After a blockbuster-ridden 2010s, SNATCH filmmaker Guy Ritchie has spent the 2020s relentlessly sharpening his skills as a cinematic airport novelist. While other directors labor over each outing as if their entire career depends on it, Ritchie pumps out mid-budget thrillers at a rate only matched by peers of a different era. In the 2020s, he has brought us WRATH OF MAN, OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE, THE COVENANT, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (and a Netflix spin-off series of THE GENTLEMEN), the Apple TV exclusive FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, and IN THE GREY, with the upcoming WIFE AND DOG and VIVA LA MADNESS primed and ready. All of these with the exception of Apple’s dreadful FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH have an infectiously playful spirit, Ritchie and his rotating troupe of actors (some of whom do career best work with him) embarking on dangerous missions with clever solutions while homoerotically quipping at one another. They’re a delight if you’re in the mood. 

This brings us to IN THE GREY, a spiritual THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. sequel centered around an elaborate extraction plan. Seems about right. However, this film did not take the easy breezy path to the big screen that most of Ritchie’s new films have enjoyed. It was delayed a full year and a half from its original release date and switched distributors from Lionsgate to Black Bear. As the story plays out, so too does the story of the production. Nearly every second of the first hour has some kind of voiceover explaining what is going on. As the heist is planned with a staggering amount of footage, on screen graphics with yellow text guide our eyes towards the important details. There are so many scenes, but each of them are short. It seems as though Ritchie shot an incomprehensible two-hour-plus procedural and somewhere in post-production, somebody said “Dude, this makes absolutely no sense.” The final Frankenstein’d cut should be unwatchable, but instead this delirious outing in the editing room has brought us the fastest-paced entertainment of this current streak. 

Sid (Henry Cavill) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two brutes assigned to protect high-power lawyer Rachel (Eiza González) at all costs. She has been assigned to collect a billion-dollar debt from crime lord Salazar (Carlos Bardem) who lives on a small island fortress. Ahead of Rachel’s visit, Sid and Bronco take their crew to the island and walk through every stage of the extraction plan. They set up plans A/B/C, lay out traps, and do reconnaissance work across the island. Eventually, the mission does play out, but once it does it’s a bit bittersweet. I wasn’t done hanging out! 

All three leads are returning from previous Ritchie projects and know exactly how to deliver his signature wit. He’s the only filmmaker (pending Chad Stahelski) who can actually make Henry Cavill feel like he’s having fun on camera. He’s a perfect brute here, walking us through the plan with just enough charisma to keep our attention. He and Gyllenhaal spend all of their free time lightly flirting with one another, as they should. The whole scenario is kind of kinky. They’re two manservants who González broke out of jail who are now seemingly undyingly devoted to her, and each other. Ritchie has never been subtle about the queer undertones of his characters, but he’s getting even bolder. At one point, Cavill is planting a bug up the rear of a small statue of a man. Looking directly into Gyllenhaal’s eyes he says, “I know what I’m doing.” 

Gyllenhaal experiments a little more. He brings an oddly posh affectation to his line deliveries that seems to suggest that Bronco is a bit more of a free spirit than Sid. He never truly expresses this through his actions, during which he remains pretty level-headed, but it’s a quirky performance that brings a lot of personality to the table. I sadly cannot say the same for González, who flounders in the largest of the three roles Ritchie has given her. She just doesn’t have the gravitas and authority that the role demands of both her interactions with the boys and her tough confrontations with Salazar. She seems like she would bend under pressure, despite how strong-willed her character is. I cannot help but wonder how Rosamund Pike, who appears in a minor role, would’ve fared as Rachel. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to find out, as she’s leading WIFE AND DOG alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, which is sure to be one of the sexiest films ever made to me, exclusively (the wealthy family in it is named Fairbank)!

The first twenty minutes of IN THE GREY are an absolute mess. It’s impossible to undersell just how relentless the voiceover is in this film. Every single bit of key exposition is delivered this way, which makes the setup of Salazar and his plans atrociously sloppy. There’s no other explanation other than Ritchie seemingly only having a couple of usable scenes, instead being forced to massage the rest of his footage this way. However, once we shift into heist-planning mode, the madcap pacing starts to work its magic. We’re essentially watching HOME ALONE on a massive scale. The scenes in this segment are also clearly cutdowns of more elaborate setpieces, but here the editing is a triumph, delivering only the most essential information with a bit of humor before moving on. We get such a vivid sense of how complicated this plan is and, as such, come to respect Sid and Bronco’s cleverness. This respect only intensifies when we witness their execution during the film’s lengthy climax, chock-full of chaotic combat straight out of an 80s actioner. 

IN THE GREY might be as convoluted as Sid and Bronco’s plan, but it’s a delight to watch Ritchie tame this wild mess he created. It speaks to his sheer productivity that he was able to helm two other films while he and editor Martin Walsh (perhaps the real hero) salvaged it. It’s not going to win over anybody who is exhausted with his formula, but over time I suspect that it will become a hidden gem amongst his biggest fans. Ritchie only occasionally garners critical acclaim, mostly when he harkens back to his early British crime films that I frankly couldn’t care less about. As a die hard fan of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., I’m thriving during this period. I suspect that after he’s long gone, these films will garner the admiration they deserve and will all be treated as neglected highlights of this era of action cinema. I’ll be sure to let your kids who buy the Arrow Video boxset that I saw them all first.