In the Grey is the 2026 action thriller written and directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill as a pair of elite fixers, alongside Eiza González as the lawyer orchestrating their mission — recovering a billion-dollar debt from a criminal organisation. With Ritchie behind the camera and that level of star power in front of it, this should have been a slam dunk. Instead, it lands as one of the more disappointing entries in his filmography.

I want to be upfront about my bias here, because it's relevant. I am a genuine, long-standing Guy Ritchie fan. The Gentlemen has been one of my favourite films for years — a perfect example of his signature blend of style, wit, sharp dialogue, and effortless cool. Wrath of Man showed a different, more restrained side of him and was equally excellent. When Ritchie is firing, very few directors working today can match his energy. So my expectations going into In the Grey were high, and that context shapes everything about my reaction to it.

The good news first. Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill have genuinely enjoyable chemistry, and their dynamic is comfortably the strongest element of the film. The banter between them lands, the partnership feels lived-in, and you can tell both actors were enjoying themselves. There's a watchability to their scenes together that keeps the film afloat even when other elements falter.

Unfortunately, that chemistry is doing an enormous amount of heavy lifting, because there isn't much else here that genuinely excites. The action sequences woven throughout the plot are competent but unremarkable — they happen, they're fine, and they fade from memory almost immediately. For a Ritchie film, "fine" is a genuine letdown. His action and set pieces usually carry a distinct flair and rhythm; here, that signature spark is largely absent.

The film's most significant failure is its villain. A Guy Ritchie film lives and dies on the strength of its antagonist's presence, and the central villain in In the Grey has no aura, no menace, and no genuine sense of power radiating from him. He never makes the room feel more dangerous. He never commands a scene. Compare this to Matthew McConaughey's performance in The Gentlemen — a masterclass in bringing controlled, charismatic, faintly threatening energy to every moment on screen. That is precisely the quality In the Grey desperately needed from its antagonist and never came close to capturing. A weak villain undermines the entire stakes of the film, and that's exactly what happens here.

None of this makes In the Grey a bad movie. It's competently made, the leads are charming, and it moves along without major missteps. But it is profoundly underwhelming relative to what Ritchie is capable of, and relative to the talent assembled. It coasts on charm where it should have soared on craft.