Ryan Gosling Plays an Operator Who Cannot Be Stopped in 'The Gray Man'

"The Gray Man," based on the series of best-selling operator spy novels by Mark Greaney, is the best movie directed by the Russo Brothers since "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and features Ryan Gosling's return to the screen four years after his turn as Neil Armstrong in the underrated NASA movie, "First Man."

Chris Evans is also on board with slicked-back hair and an outrageous mustache, having a fantastic time playing the bad guy. Ana de Armas, the highlight of the recent Bond movie "No Time to Die," proves she's got a real talent for guns and hand-to-hand combat. All in all, it's a grand time at the movies.

If you've read Greaney's novels, you know that lead character Court Gentry (Gosling) is a lethal CIA operative who never served in the military. The running tension between Gentry and the special ops veterans who make up the rest of his secret unit is a recurring theme in the novels, but that military element is missing from what hopefully will be the first in a long-running series of movies.

The director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page, "Bridgerton") kicked out Gentry's mentors, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton, "Bad Santa") and Maurice Cahill (Alfre Woodard, "Scrooged"), and wants to dismantle the program that brought Gentry into the CIA. Carmichael and his lieutenant, Suzanne Brewer (Jessica Henwick, "The Matrix Resurrections"), bring in their old Harvard buddy and freelance security consultant, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), to eliminate Gentry, the last operative alive from Fitzroy's secret unit.

Hansen kidnaps Fitzroy's niece Claire (Julia Butters, "Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood") in hopes of using Gentry's loyalty to lure him back onto the grid. There's also a high-dollar hit put out on the Gray Man, so independent operator teams from around the world are racing to kill Gentry and collect a massive bounty.

Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) is a character who doesn't exist in the book, but here, she's a CIA agent who worked with Gentry on a messy mission at the movie's opening and becomes his ally as she realizes that Carmichael isn't going to let her survive. The Russos thankfully don't turn her into a romantic interest and just allow her to operate and give Gentry someone to play off during his mission to save Fitzroy's niece.

Since Greaney's Gentry is the ultimate loner in operator fiction, some readers may have trouble with this approach. A movie with Gosling narrating what's going on inside his head wouldn't have worked, and the Miranda character seems to be a reasonable solution to that problem. De Armas seems set to be the best female action star since Charlize Theron and is now scheduled to star in "Ballerina," a "John Wick" spinoff set to be written by Emerald Fennell, who oversaw season two of "Killing Eve" and wrote and directed "Promising Young Woman."

"The Gray Man" is a huge relief after the unfortunate mess of the Russo Brothers’ last movie "Cherry," which starred Tom Holland as a veteran who robbed banks while suffering PTSD and was based on the novel by Nico Walker, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and wrote the novel from prison after he was arrested for robbing banks. Holland was miscast, and the movie was a huge disappointment.

"The Gray Man" has more in common with "Extraction," the excellent Netflix operator movie written by Joe Russo, produced by the brothers and starring Chris Hemsworth. Both are fast-paced, under two hours long and full of outstanding set pieces with plenty of hand-to-hand combat.

Netflix spent a huge amount on "The Gray Man" and will release it exclusively in theaters for one week on July 15, 2022, before it comes to the streaming service on July 22. "The Gray Man" is the kind of action picture that will benefit from a full and rowdy crowd in a theater, so it's worth the trip if you're interested in seeing it.

Gosling does a great job with the role, and the author, Greaney, has more stories worth telling. The Russo brothers will have to figure out some serious plot solutions because of the changes they made to the story for this movie, but let's hope more Court Gentry movies are coming soon.

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