The Gray Man, despite having a $200 million budget, an excellent cast, and the directors and writers from Avengers: Endgame holding its reins, fails to make a lasting impression, to the point that you will forget most of the movie’s events a few hours after watching it. It tries to be too many types of spy movies at once and ends up having a disjointed identity.
Courtland Gentry (Ryan Gosling) is recruited by the mysterious Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) into a shadowy CIA program out of prison. Two decades later, Sierra Six (Courtland’s codename) stumbles into a coverup and has to go on the run. His boss, Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page) hires a dangerous, slightly off-kilter private military operative, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to hunt Sierra Six down. As Six tries to find allies and make sense of his situation, he is also joined by another operative, Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) who’s also looking to clear her name. In the meanwhile, Lloyd has kidnapped both Fitzroy and his niece, Claire (Julia Butters), who shares a special bond with Six.
The Gray Man doesn’t have the greatest storyline, and it also falls prey to the spy flick convention of going on a world tour where people try to murder you with bullets and cars. However, some of the best spy movies of the last twenty years or so have made up for adequate plotting with stellar action, spectacular direction, and 100% commitment from leads like Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise.
Although Ryan Gosling is decent as the solemn but wise-cracking Six- and Chris Evans has too much fun hamming it up as a villain- the film wastes the likes of Ana de Armas and Alfre Woodard in poorly defined roles, though Woodard delivers a commanding performance with what little she has been given. There is a fun cameo by Wagner Moura (of Narcos fame), while Jessica Henwick gets just enough screentime to be not considered as an extended cameo. And Dhanush is given just enough character so that he doesn’t remain a silent henchman for the entirety of the movie.
Although Chris Evans’ performance as the unhinged Lloyd is a delight, it feels like The Gray Man spends too much time building him as a sociopath without an effective payoff.
He definitely bends the rules, and he does get an obligatory torture scene, but Lloyd usually comes off as both boisterous and squirrelly in the film.
The Gray Man fails to become a compelling, serious spy flick, except for the ending where the antagonists- and more specifically, the system- wins, although even then we are force-fed a healthy helping of silver linings afterward.
To be fair, the film didn’t need to be serious: it could have been as over the top as the Fast and Furious franchise, but it doesn’t commit to either end of the spectrum and ends up becoming forgettable.
A sequel has already been greenlit, and while we can hope for something better, in all likelihood, it will probably be as bland and cookie-cutter as this one. If the Russo brothers couldn’t get it right with so many resources and stars at their disposal, they probably aren’t going to hit the bullseye in their second attempt. Of course, they probably didn’t aim to create a piece of transcendental cinema with The Gray Man. Yet, even for a one-time watch on Netflix, it’s still disappointing.