When black ops operative Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is set up and framed, she seeks the truth… and revenge.
Haywire boasts an amazing international cast, and signals the reteaming of director Steven Soderbergh and writer Lem Dobbs. The pair worked together in the past, most recently on The Limey in 1999. Steven Soderbergh is having something of a busy time lately; Contagion was released just recently, but he has taken things down a notch with Haywire.
Gina Canaro is best known as an MMA fighter, and she gets to show off the skills that made her famous. She kicks all kinds of ass, chases bad guys through the streets of Barcelona then goes on the run in Dublin, leading to a great chase across the rooftops of the city. All this, and she just about manages to hold her own against the likes of Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender…. Even if she does have the emotional range of a frog. That said, it is hard not to enjoy the scenes where Canaro takes on her enemies, especially her confrontation with Fassbender in a Dublin hotel room. There is something of ‘The Bride’ about this character in that she will not be put down until she gets what she wants, and she is a woman keeping men in check. Canaro falls down in the gentler scenes; she attempts tenderness which ends up coming off as aggressive and controlling, even when the character is undercover.
The supporting cast – Fassbender, Douglas, McGregor and Banderas – hold the story of the film. They are the ones who have betrayed Kane, and they get to deliver the meatier lines. None of the actors do a particularly bad job, but they are not spectacular either. This could be that the storyline works against them by being overly complex – as these things often are – but McGregor really only hits one note and Banderas just gets to be mean and Spanish. Fassbender gets a little more to do – and is charming and dashing as ever – but he is quickly dispensed of for the sake of our heroine.
Haywire may not be the most cerebral of action movies, but it is by far the smartest we have seen in a long time. Canaro’s fight scenes are remarkable to watch, and Soderbergh films them in such a compelling way that it is hard to remember that he has never done a full on action movie before. There are touches of Oceans Eleven about the film; including David Holmes’ score, the lack of unnecessary dialogue and use of colour. In all, Haywire is a decent action movie, it is just a shame that it is tripped up by it’s own cleverness. Oh, and as a Dublin resident, it’s great to see that Soderbergh did the city proud, and even got the geography right.
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Haywire is released in UK cinemas 18 January 2012
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