Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

adrenachrome-3 This isn't a slasher and given the fact that most of Fish's victims were children, which he sexually molested and cannibalized, that isn't too surprising a fact. Further evidence of this if needed was the fact the Chiller channel released this alongside Hitchcock's "Psycho" in a masters of suspense double bill.****Here starts the spoilers, in so much that reference will be made to the true story on which this is based and how this was portrayed in this film****What this is, notwithstanding, is a film that focuses on the murder of Grace Budd and the police investigation that leads to Fish's eventual arrest. Set against the backdrop of the great depression, the film shows the effects such crimes have, not only on the victims and their families, but indeed, the killer and his loved ones as well. It's worth mentioning this, as some of the photography and visuals belie the limited budget of this ambitious period piece. Mention has been made of a train and metal railings that were not to period, but given the budget and location this in itself is laudable and such things were well hidden from anyone but the most perceptive and in my mind no way interferes with the film or the telling of it. Certainly the set decoration and costumer departments did a wonderful job and scenes like the Western Union telegram repository are truly beautiful and evocative. Shot mostly in Gutherie and Oklahoma City the film does give one the look and feel of Depression-era New York. How they made The local Masonic Lodge look like Grand Central Station is beyond me, but that I guess is where a director's vision becomes very evident in the ability to see that and believably recreate it in such a strange location. An Easter egg in this scene are the flower and sweet sellers, which are the two news anchors for Fox 25, who ran coverage of the filming of the Gray Man under the heading "Okiewood"!!Drawing from the original letters Fish wrote to his family, lawyer, doctors... and most chillingly, several victims, these and the trial transcripts were handed to the Producers by Fish's trial lawyer and used as source material. Several scenes were also created around photographs of Fish and his family and while this doesn't add anything truly to the overall film, it does speak to the intelligent use by the director and makes for another wonderful Easter egg.This is one of the films you wish they had made a mini-series of. Plunging into the darkness the film maker holds on the central plot of the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. Given this was an Indie and thus the running time was dictated for commercial showing, it shows several abductions, alluding to the murders if not showing them. It would have been nice to have more and one suspects much had to be left on the cutting room floor. Still what we have is well crafted and accurate.In a world where we have become desensitized to violence the director goes the intellectual route and crafts suspense and leaves the bad things for your minds eye to create and dwell on. Something I wager which is far scarier. It isn't Disney, it's intelligent and for those that seek blood, gorging on human flesh and excrement this isn't the film for you. Yes these are mentioned or showed in a stylized way that retains the horror sans a Chuckyesque knife- wielding maniac. There is also no teenage sex or pounding rock music to distract you either. Flynn uses Bauchau in the vein of Wells, portraying him as a grandfatherly figure, the demonic is seen in flashes and in a command performance Bauchau's Fish is absolutely chilling.Further comparison can be had to the old masters in the stylized filming of the Budd scene in which we are introduced to the angelic Grace Budd. In fact throughout, the camera is moved wonderfully and every shot used to support and promote the emotional narrative. In the age of 5 camera lock-offs, jump cuts and CGI, is a film purist's dream. All in all, this was a film of which I left wanting to see more. While this wasn't a slasher or indeed, a documentary, what it is is a nicely crafted true crime story that is entertaining and makes one talk, think and feel. Overall the acting, camera work and direction were above par, with the jobs done by Bauchau, Flynn and Rudd respectively worth higher praise. The film is in Fincher territory rather than Roth, not that that's a bad or good thing, it just is. While this isn't the full story, we're all going to have to wait for a mini-series to get that. In the mean time color me intrigued and hoping for such an event.

jery-tillotson-1 Albert Fish was one of the most monstrous of human monsters. While this movie shows him being prepared for electrocution, after he was convicted of kidnapping and cannibalizing a little girl, he taunted his captors that he was also responsible for nearly l00 other unsolved murders. This movie is so devoid of shock, horror, tension, grimness that it could be shown on the Disney Channel with just a few minor cuts. It's like the movie makers were determined to make a "serious" "artful" movie that would not upset anyone. Everything in this film is clean, glossy, sunny and the actor who portrays Albert Fish is so handsome and charming that it's like he walked in from a soap opera. The horrendous life of Albert Fish and the horrors he perpetrated deserves a shocking, bloody, horrific treatment. Nothing in this tame, pallid production suggests any of these qualities.

poe426 When I was a kid, I read comic books and in those comics were ads for everything from "sea monkeys" to books about "freaks." One ad showed an elderly, bewhiskered man named Albert Fish; beneath his picture was the word "cannibal." In my neighborhood, there was an old man who looked a LOT like Albert Fish: his skin and his hair were gray, and he wore an ankle-length gray trenchcoat. He would stand across the street from the grade school I attended and accost kids on their way home every day. I asked who he was and someone told me that his name was "Pork Chop." I made a point of avoiding him. But there came a day when I had to stay after school for some long-forgotten reason. As I crossed the street, I realized that someone was following me. I turned, and there was Pork Chop. He reached for me. "Come here, son," he whispered. I backed away, shaking my head, and looked toward the school- but the school was empty and deserted now. Pork Chop came at me, arm outstretched. I ran. My mother called the police when I got home and I went back with them to the place where I'd been accosted, but Pork Chop was gone. A door-to-door search yielded no results. I've never forgotten that close encounter, nor Albert Fish, "cannibal." While I think that Bauchau is probably a lot more cultured than the real-life Fish was, his is still a riveting performance and helps make THE GRAY MAN a true crime movie worth watching. The only real problem with it is the inordinate amount of time that is spent on the obsessed cop: real or a fictional construct, he's not the reason to see THE GRAY MAN.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Interesting film about the life times and crimes of one of America's most notorious serial killers Albert Fish, Patrick Bauchau. Fish not only murdered his victims he cannibalized them as well which made him a perfect candidate, when he stood trial, for an insanity defense that would have saved him a one way trip to the Sing Sing electric chair. Being that Fish was actually looking froward to get strapped into the chair, he was reported to say it would be the biggest thrill in his life, he made little if any attempt to defend himself in trying to convince the jury that he was, which was very possible,insane and ended up getting his wish. Fish at age 65 was executed in Sing Sing prison on the morning of January 16, 1936 being one of the oldest persons to be executed in New York State history. For all the crimes that Fish was reported to have committed, that included some half dozen murders, he was tried convicted and executed for the kidnap murder of 12 year-old Grace Budd, Lexi Ainwsorth. It was Fish himself who by sending an anonymous letter to Grace's parents admitting his crime that lead the police to track him down and finally put an end to his reign of terror.The film "The Gray Man" goes deep into Albert Fish's sick mind in showing how he as a young boy became fascinated with pain, that was inflicted on him at the orphanage he spent his early years in, and how that fascination, that lead to his purposely torturing himself, shaped his entire adult life. Fish also became some kind of religious fanatic who explained away his horrendous crimes in saving his victims, all young children, the pains of either being raped or corrupted in the future!Like most serial killer Fish,in him being in his 50's and 60's when he committed his crimes, came across as a both sweet and kindly old man to his intended victims, and their family members, that masked the real intentions that he had in store for them. It was Fish's own sense of invincibility, by getting away with his crimes for so long, that in the end did him in. It also took the efforts of New York City Police Detective Will King, Jack Conley, to track Fish down and finally bring him to justice.Det. King never gave up in trying to find little Grace Budd's murderer when everyone else did. Suffering a serious mental breakdown that landed him in the hospital for weeks Det. King still worked on the Grace Budd murder case, from his hospital bed, until he got the brake that he so long, for some six years, had waited for. And ironically that brake came from Albert Fish himself!