Wow, it truly is gratifying to watch a woman beat the living daylights out of a bigger, stronger man. It must be, with movies such as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Kill Bill” and “Alien” going down in history as a few of the films that proved women can not only play the hero of an action film, but rock the part better than a lot of men can. Now there’s one more fim to add to the ever-expanding demand for warrior princesses, and that is “Haywire.”
“Haywire” tells the story of a black Ops soldier, Mallory Kane, 
hired by the government, who is sent to Barcelona on a mission to recover a hostage. After her mission is completed she realizes she has been framed by her own agency and now must stay alive long enough to uncover the truth behind her betrayal. This film is riddled with big names like Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton and Channing Tatum. But first, let’s talk about the star, Gina Carano. Aside from “Haywire,” Carano is newcomer to the film industry exceeding expectations.
So why choose her to be the next female action phenomenon over the abundance of famous female talent Hollywood has at its disposal? She is a nearly-undefeated, champion Mixed Martial Arts fighter. It is blatantly obvious from the moment the movie begins that this girl knows how to handle herself. All of her mixed MMA skills are utilized in the film, resulting in some of the most believable and convincing fight sequences. It does seem, however, that there was a trade-off when acquiring talent like Carano’s.
The acting on Carano’s part was forced and appeared off tremendously cheesy at times. The script didn’t help much in the cheese department but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that Carano will eventually need to take some acting lessons. Tatum’s performance also seemed like a rendition of every other character he has played, which consists of him trying way too hard to be the “cool and aloof guy.” But the rest of the all-star cast, while not exceeding expectations, gave solid consistent performances, most notably McGregor, the main antagonist of the story, in a role we haven’t seen him play much.
The real star of this film is undeniably the director, Steven Soderbergh is the mastermind behind the films “Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Contagion” and the “Ocean’s 11” trilogy. His directing style is very gritty, real and raw. “Haywire,” from the first scene, is unmistakably a Soderbergh creation. Rather than creating artistic images and beautiful scenic design, Soderbergh has a way of handling the camera that makes the viewer feel like they are a part of the action. His style borders on the documentary-esque films of any student filmmaker, who also happens to be amazingly talented.
The film jumps in between Kane’s (Carano) recount of how she got herself into her predicament and her current pursuit of her betrayers. Each scene only gives you a single piece of the puzzle so that the audience has to work, as well, to unveil the mystery. Each puzzle piece builds on the previous, and it’s not until the very last scene that the puzzle is completed. Don’t worry, it’s not just a mind game. There is the perfect amount of well planned and well executed fighting and shoot’em up scenes as well. One very interesting and unique choice Soderbergh made with these scenes was to extract any kind of music or score during the fights. This may not seem like much, but we rarely see these kinds of high-intensity scenes not underscored with some kind of background music. This choice did not only make the scenes drastically more suspenseful, it also created realistic fight sequences scarcely seen on film these days.
“Haywire” has a tendency of being cheesy at points; however it is a genre film and certain compromises must be made when viewing a film like this. One must be able to suspend disbelief and accept the film for what it claims to be – an action thriller. If you are still skeptical, have faith in knowing that it was directed by Soderbergh. That fact in itself makes this film worth seeing.
I would sum up the film in one sentence, “the love child of ‘Ocean’s 11’ and ‘The Bourne Identity’ with a beautiful super soldier thrown in.” So, if you’re not one for intelligent, fast-paced, action-packed spy flicks, then this one may not be for you. But if that is your thing … go buy your ticket immediately.
