It may sound like a horror film about Davina McCall’s ads for Garnier Nutrisse hair products, but this is actually a wintry survivalist thriller produced by Tony Scott, and directed by Joe Carnahan, he of The A-Team and Smokin’ Aces. The star is Liam Neeson, whose great, weatherbeaten, manly, dignified face looms out of the poster, promising an intravenous infusion of testosterone thrills. And it’s not too bad, socking over the story with enthusiasm and displaying some robust storytelling skills. Neeson plays an oil-rigger in the freezing wastes with the specialist task of shooting the Alaskan wolves who occasionally menace the area. A plane he’s on, along with a group of other boozy and cynical roughnecks, goes down with engine failure in the snowy middle of nowhere, and Neeson has to lead the survivors in a desperate trek across bitter terrain, menaced by the wolves, whose intentions and strategy are the subject of much Zulu-Dawn-type speculation. There’s a cracking scene in which the wolves’ eyes appear, pair by pair, in the darkness … a little broad, perhaps, but good stuff. Neeson confers weight and muscle on the movie, and endows it with a kind of emotional dignity it would not otherwise have.
• This article was amended on Friday 27 January 2011 to correct the spelling of ‘Garnier Nutrisse’.
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