Haywire Review

12th Jan 2012

Ever get fed up of anorexic A-list stars beating up on 15 stone henchmen in Hollywood action flicks? Even wonder how Keira Knightley ever manages to muster the strength to hold two swords in the air at the same time, yet alone take out half an army of undead fish mutants? Ever wonder why Hollywood has barely managed to provide us with a believable action lead since the days of Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley? Well don’t worry ‘cause Steven Soderbergh may just have the right person to fit the bill of believability.

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a well paid covert operative working for a private company who are leased by the government to do odd bits of dirty work from time to time. Mallory is a quick thinker, a hard hitter and nobody’s fool. Despite having had a various relationships with her colleagues (and even her own boss) – she is still pretty much nobody’s to control. So much so that she is even jacking in her role after a job in Barcelona.

But then she is called in for “one last job” by her boss Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) she find herself in Dublin where events take a turn for the worse and she finds herself on the run from, well, everyone. The government officials (Michael Douglas) want her; the private contractors (Antonio Banderas) want her. Her own team (including Channing Tatum) are after her. Seems even poor old dad (played by Missing In Action Bill Paxton) has his worries.

What we get is a fast paced thriller following the very watchable Carano as she treks across the globe and gets into one fight and escape after another. She’s clearly what the action genre “for women” really need. She doesn’t waste time pouting to the camera and proves without a doubt that she needs very little stunt double work or editing. She clearly has a face that you can tell has been struck a few times, but still has a quiet grace about it at the same time, making her all the more alluring a presence.

Steven Soderbergh proves once again that he can work in any genre. True he borrows much of the editing and sound (particularly utilising David Holmes on the music cues) from his Ocean’s films. But he makes editing visualising action scenes almost a “paint by numbers” process. The Barcelona set piece for example bounces back and forth between colour and Black & White just so the viewing can easily track whose perspective we are following (good guys and bad guys).

The film does get a bit tied up in its own plot. Really it is a little too convoluted when explained towards the end just how everything came about. Realistically it’s something that could have been tied up quicker and more efficiently without having to become such an extravagant plan. But then we wouldn’t have the film without it.

Time will tell what the future makes of Carano – but this is a promising start and a real effective middle finger to the A-List starlets that pretend to dip their toes when it suits their career.