Movie Review: The Gray Man (2022)

The Gray Man (2022) co-written and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

The CIA has extra-special operatives for whom there are no records, just numeric designations. Ryan Gosling plays Six, an operative who at the beginning of the movie is sent to Asia to stop a sale of secret information. He's about to make the hit at a night club when he realizes that a child is in the line of fire. His superiors want him to take the shot but he improvises some chaos. Six winds up chasing down the target who admits he's Four (another secret operative!) and gives Six the information on a microchip. Six can't quite decrypt it but does see that it has information about CIA higher-ups who have run illegal operations for their own profit. He has a hard time bringing the information in since the CIA is out to get him, going so far as to hire Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans). Lloyd is a psychotic CIA dropout who will do anything to get a job done. The back-and-forth fight spans the globe and causes a lot of mayhem and action.

The plot is a standard premise and works to string together a lot of action set-pieces. The fights and chases are exciting. Evans enjoys himself as the scenery-chewing bad guy who loves what he does. Gosling can do the action but has no emotional range or expression, even though he has mentor figures (Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard) and a little girl (Julia Butters) to take care of as he's trying to get the information in the right hands. Since he's the main character, his lack of performance makes the film drag in the quiet scenes. The rest of the cast carries the film. The action sequences are fun and over the top, making this more like a summer popcorn movie than a great action thriller.

Slightly recommended.