Grey Lady

If you like engaging slow burners are in for a treat. I just cannot understand how anyone can give this 1 star , there are really low budget poorly made and badly acted films out there but this film is not one of them and for people to give this film such a low rating has no right leaving reviews

This was truly one of the worst films I've seen in a long time.

The story was incoherent throughout most of the film, leaving you constantly wondering who was who and what they were doing. Characters just sort of arrived and did their thing giving you no idea what the hell was going on. Characters also so sort of disappeared at critical moments. There were so many illogical leaps and gaping plot holes, how on earth did they even stitch this movie together?

For example, the main character, Doyle a Boston detective, has a cup of tea with Melissa an artist and the female lead (and a Jane Seymour doppelganger to boot) and within minutes everyone is calling her his girlfriend. When literally nothing on screen suggests they've even held hands.

Another example is when the Director, who cast himself as the Police Chief, tells Doyle to leave the island and immediately stop working the case, Doyle just says no and broods for a few seconds, so of course the Police Chief immediately forgets what he just said and organizes all the assistance he can give Doyle to pursue the case... I mean it was literally just a beat and he was doing the opposite.

The worst one was the final shoot-out, Doyle had enlisted a local with a bow to help him assault the house the killers were holed up in, a bowman who was good enough to send an arrow through one of the killers legs. Yet the bowman just disappears after that shot, he wasn't injured in the fight, he didn't run away, he just kind stayed out of the final showdown, almost like he said, you guys work it out without me.

The dialogue was universally awful, so it's hard to know if you should blame the actors for it, but they were all utterly wooden in their performances. Hard to pick who was the worst on screen as they all had a crack at being awful.

Lastly the film's score was so odd, one minute we had Gladiator style haunting singing for a flash back, to a jaunty Scottish jigs, then to an Irish style dance, then to contemporary ballads... none of them matched the scenes unfold on screen at all. It was off-putting and by the end of the film you couldn't help but laugh at how bad it all was.

I've watched many lowly rated films and all of them have some redeeming features, not this film, it is absolutely the worst film I've seen in years, that anyone gives this more than about 3 or 4 out of 10 is just mind blowing.

The Grey Lady sets out to confuse and mystify, and achieves that spectacularly. Am I sorry I watched it? NO. If one does not occasionally view, or suffer through poorly written movies, one will not feel the extreme pleasure of a 9 or 10. Having watched with some intent, mainly because I was trying to understand the background to the storyline, unsuccessfully I might add, it served its purpose of being something to watch.

Set in Nantucket one begins to wonder why that location. Perhaps the isolation and smaller population fits the bill for the unfolding of an erratic and at times nonsensical set of events that would be ridiculous in a city setting.

Full of cliches, sudden attraction between characters, irrational art purchases, and an anti out of town cop police chief, who retracts his anti feelings in hindsight. A fairly wooden acting performance by many, or most, cast members.

I came, I saw, I watched. I now have a lowish bar against which I can judge other movies.

There are some movies that after you finish watching, you ask yourself why? Why this movie was made? The movie was a car wreck, bad writing, acting direction, even the island looked fake, The Grey lady looked like Staten Island rather than herself! Do yourself a favor watch anything else but this!

A Boston Detective Doyle (Eric Dane) and his partner-wife Maggie (Rebecca Gayheart) respond to a break-in at an art gallery and Doyle figures out this is an ambush. Both are subdued and Maggie is shot and killed with Doyle's gun and Doyle is shot with Maggie's gun. Before dying Maggie whispers clues to Doyle: Crown and Rose. Doyle is suspended and he goes to Nantucket to a restaurant called the Crown and Rose. Doyle grew up in Nantucket and hopes that some family members there will help him discover the reason for the killing. At this point he is not aware that he is the real target.

This is very slow going and much information the audience needs is hard to come by. I gave up some things above that would take forever before the Director lets them known. You are welcome. But for you to enjoy this story you needed to know some things. Enter Eli Morrison (Carolyn Stotesbery) and Perry Morrison (Chris Meyer) two psychopaths and we are not sure what their role is in here. There are many things we are not privy to and we find ourselves learning about characters who just decide to show up. What do they know? Doyle needs to find out. The acting all around is good even though much isn't revealed by this cast. Ha!

The real mystery in here is why the audience is kept from good information and they (we) sometimes become so confused we almost shut this down. Yes, yes, all information will be revealed at the end. Yeaaaaah! This would have been a better cat and mouse mystery if Doyle knew or suspected who the killers were, but not that he would know he was the ultimate target. Well, that is until the very end. There is a twist that even God didn't see coming. Honest.

Notables: Natalie Zea as Melissa, the love interest for Doyle and she has looks that closely resemble Maggie, his dead wife; Amy Madigan as Lola and Doyle's aunt and is the real key to everything; Adrian Lester as Detective Johnson who helps Doyle and also is there to keep an eye on him; and John Shea as police Chief Maguire who also wrote this somewhat confusing story.

FYI: Eric Dane was a regular on TV show Grey's Anatomy and he is currently in The Last Ship.

Who is the Grey Lady? Why Nantucket itself, which we see in fogs, dreary, and lifeless ways, much like this story. (5/10)

Violence; Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, but not much.