Haywire

Mallory Kane is a covert operative for hire who works for various governments throughout the world. After saving a Chinese journalist who has been taken hostage, she is sent to Dublin on another assignment where things go horrible awry. Soon her life is in danger and she doesn’t know who she can trust. The star of Haywire is Gina Carano, a former mixed martial arts fighter. Surrounding her are accomplished actors only an auteur like Steven Soderbergh could assemble. Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas all show up in supporting parts. Given her rough and tumble background, Carano is a surprisingly stunning beauty. The fight scenes in this thriller have an organic, authentic feel that makes it clear she was selected for her athletic prowess over her thespian skills. Carano doesn’t give an emotionally engaging performance but I don’t hold that against her – that’s not mandatory for these types of pictures. She’s essentially required to kick butt and look pretty doing it, which she accomplishes.

This is a traditional low budget B movie at heart, dressed up in a 70s style aesthetic. Let’s face it, that’s an impressive cast to begin with. Now let’s address the look of the production. Every scene is beautifully composed and shot by Steven Soderbergh (credited here as Peter Andrews). Visual technique goes a long way in maintaining the audience’s interest in the story. The jazzy score by David Holmes is a playful romp. The smooth horns and piano elevate the events on screen. The violent punches and kicks seem much more sophisticated backed by the light music.

The plot is convoluted but again, it’s a spy thriller, so kind of expected.  Therein lies the problem. Not much happens that you wouldn‘t already expect in an actioner of this sort. Mallory attempts to make sense of her situation and things progress rather predictably. There are double crossings and ambiguous loyalties which must be resolved. Whether or not she will accomplish her mission is never a question. She is too capable for us to be concerned with that. The issue becomes, who‘s responsible and how quickly will she find out? In fact, the answer is very quickly as the movie runs only 93 minutes. It’s efficient and that’s probably a good thing in this case.

This is Steven Soderbergh Lite. I suspect he never intended this to be some grand statement about the life of a secret agent. There’s little in the way of innovation here. Female led action films can’t call themselves cutting edge anymore simply by virtue of the protagonist’s sex. Resident Evil, Underworld, Wanted, Salt and Hanna are just a few recent titles that fit this description. Take your pick, the trend is quite common (and profitable) these days. In the hands of a lesser director, this might have been less successful, but Soderbergh’s artistic touches (cast, cinematography and music) manage to push this adventure into a satisfactory time filler.