By Tara Kelly

Staff Writer

Liam Neeson is The Man. He’s proven he can do anything: a wise martial arts master (Batman Begins, Star Wars Episode I), a dangerously smart ex-agent-of-some-kind (Taken, The A-Team), and even a troubled widower (Love Actually). What separates him from machos like Willis or Stallone is that he puts the “act” in “action.”

Now, in “The Grey,” viewers see him in a story that strips actors of most resources like a gun. There’s nothing in this movie but natural predators and brutal weather. There’s also nothing to save Neeson’s character, and a half-dozen unfortunate men, as they try to face the baren wilderness. Well, nothing except his extensive knowledge of the Alaskan tundra.

Neeson plays John Ottway, a wildlife sniper at an Alaskan oil rig, full of blue-collar, foul-mouthed working stiffs heading home. Their plane crashes in a place that’s worse than the middle of nowhere – wolf territory.

For those of the “if it’s furry, it’s cuddly” opinion, these wolves are anything but. Often, they’re shown as too-fast glimpses as they attack the survivors. These animals are not cute. The film made these animals amount to wild Alaska’s violent street gangs. The overuse of CGI-rendered wolves and the lack of real footage of wolves made part of the film feel unrealistic, but I was so caught up in praying for the survivors of the plane crash to make it that I didn’t care.

It’s delightfully frightening, and even though you probably weren’t looking for it, it was spiritually enlightening. Man against nature? I found myself reflecting on a lot of literature I read based on that theme, like “Call of the Wild.” I was glad to have watched a film that was so believably frightening.

The film may engage viewers in a battle between man and animal, but it’s not completely bad-ass. It’s like Survivor, but there’s no prize at the end. You don’t expect anyone to live. But sometime you don’t need an indulgent Hollywood ending. And rest assured, this one doesn’t have one.