What would you do if you had essentially unlimited funds?
If you answered “make a spy movie,” then you have something in common with Anthony and Joe Russo. The brothers who first attracted attention directing episodes of Arrested Development struck it as big as you can possibly strike it with the two-part climax to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The bladder-busting, superhero punch-a-thons grossed a collective $4.8 billion, with Endgame delivering the most profitable weekend in the 120-year history of the industry.
With no more worlds to conquer, the Russos can write their own ticket. Who wouldn’t say yes to history’s most successful film team? And so, we have The Gray Man, at $200 million, the most expensive film Netflix has ever produced.
It is my duty to be skeptical about mega-budget projects as awash in hubris as The Gray Man, but I must point out that it is an adaptation of a book by Memphian Mark Greaney, who spent a decade struggling in the service industry while he worked on his novels. His 2009 book The Gray Man was a sleeper hit with the techno-thriller crowd, and when Tom Clancy passed away, Greaney took over the Jack Ryan franchise, while also producing a hit spy series of his own.
Greaney’s titular hero is Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling), one of a team of semi-reformed criminals recruited by CIA honcho Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to do stuff that requires both extreme moral flexibility and plausible deniability. But, as scheming CIA analyst Suzanne Brewer (Jessica Henwick) sarcastically points out, you take a group of hardened criminals, give them state-of-the-art weapons and the best training in the world, and something’s bound to go wrong.
The thing that goes wrong arrives in the person of director Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), who takes over when Fitzroy retires and decides to tie up his predecessor’s loose ends. Six is assigned to do a quiet assassination with a sniper rifle, but when a little girl gets in the way of his target, he can’t take the shot.
Yes, this is the type of movie where square-jawed men unironically bark, “Take the shot!”
Instead, he engages the target hand-to-hand in the middle of a giant fireworks display that cost more than Best Picture-winner Nomadland. And that’s pretty much all you need to know about The Gray Man. It’s a spy story grounded in the real world, so there are no spaceships or interdimensional portals or guys in flying armored suits. Instead, Netflix’s scratch pile funds international travel, sweeping outdoor set-pieces, and meticulously dressed interiors, many of which explode for poorly explained reasons. Psycho superspy antagonist Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) swigs Glenlivet while he directs mercenary fireteams from his French chateau HQ. When he gets mad, he doesn’t just flip a desk — he sweeps the best-stocked minibar you’ve ever seen onto the floor and grabs the complimentary bottle of Vicodin on his way out.
Sierra Six is basically 007 without the Cold War baggage. James Bond was an ideological warrior for queen and capital; Six is a gig-economy contractor caught in the breakdown of the nation state’s monopoly on violence. He has as much loyalty to the United States as a DoorDasher has to Applebee’s. He only cares about his partner Dani (Ana de Armas), who’s perpetually saving his life, and Fitzroy’s niece Claire (Julia Butters), whose life he’s perpetually saving.
Evans is delicious playing against type as the heavy. The key to his success is that he’s always having fun doing whatever goofy thing the Russos throw at him. When he drags a distressed damsel into a full-on Shining hedge maze while practically twirling his mustache, vaudeville villain-style, you can’t help but “Hell yeah!” The Gray Man breaks no new ground, but it’s so much fun to watch the Russos burn Netflix’s money, you won’t care. And if the next Ian Fleming is a bartender from Memphis, that’s all the better.
The Gray Man is now playing at multiple locations and streaming on Netflix beginning July 22nd.