Growing up, I loved “Jason Bourne” movies. My dad and I would save our Sunday nights to sit on the couch in our basement and queue a couple of them to binge watch. It was our way of bonding over a movie that had a little something for everyone. One thing we both loved, however, was asking the question, “How is he going to make it out this time?”, because by the end, he always did. In the movie “The Gray Man,” the audience is encouraged to ask a similar question. In fact, one might say that it has all the thrills of Jason Bourne, just without the commitment or complexity.
“The Gray Man” is a Netflix original action movie directed by the Russo brothers and starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. The movie released on July 22, 2022. Essentially, the principle of this movie is that Ryan Gosling, aka “Six”, a former prisoner, gets out of prison in exchange for becoming an assassin for the CIA.
This movie accomplishes a lot of good things that an action movie should. It has an interesting opening scene that leaves the audience with questions, there are plenty of fights that move the story forward and it contains the classic “bad guy turns good” persona we all know and love. As far as an action movie goes, it gives viewers everything they could ask for. Although, if you came expecting intricacy and character development, you should probably look somewhere else.
For some reason, after reading the description, I anticipated lots of storytelling and plot-moving dialogue sprinkled throughout the scenes. I came into the experience with an idea that there would be some sort of multifaceted mystery to solve or plot twist to be surprised by. I waited… and I waited… and then the movie was over. To be completely honest, I walked away a little disappointed by the whole experience. Then I took a step back and realized something. This movie was not made to have a thick plot that grabs its viewers attention with its incredible narrative.
Instead of being complicated and dense with detail, the creators wrote this movie to be one thing: simple. There is no strong character development because the characters are meant to be static. The action scenes are supposed to be fast-paced and in quick succession. Your critical thinking skills should not be something you need to bring out and dust off as you sit down to watch this movie. The point is to just enjoy it.
In our current world, we are easily bored. This can be a difficult thing to come to terms with. If you walked away disappointed like I did, do not be discouraged. You are not alone. The writers did not write deep feelings and profound emotional attachment to characters into the script for a reason. We do not need a second movie to understand the story in more detail because they gave us all the details we could possibly want. In a way, this film vaguely reminds me of a Hallmark movie where you know the ending, yet you watch it regardless because it is still entertaining. There is something easy about just sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the show.
In a world where innovation and originality are praised, maybe we need a little bit of simplicity in our lives. Maybe we do not need plots with hundreds of subplots. Maybe the writers and directors were not trying to make a franchise or produce the next “Jason Bourne.” What if they were just creating a movie that an audience could enjoy? What if they gave us a story we could piece together ourselves because not everything needs to be elaborate? The simplicity of this movie is what makes it watch-worthy.
“The Gray Man” is available to stream on Netflix.
Knowing Olivia, I can’t wait to watch, “The Gray Man.” And, I agree, sometimes simple is great!
Not sure I would have compared The Gray Man to a Hallmark offering, but she is right. Nothing new in the Gray Man and the ending was as predictable as a Hallmark ending.