Back in 2009, when director Steven Soderbergh ("Contagion") saw mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano in a televised bout, he immediately knew he had found the perfect woman to build an action vehicle around. Not only is she physically imposing, but she has a face the camera loves.
That vehicle turned out to be “Haywire,” a highly entertaining and stylized thriller that goes against the old adage, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Instead, Soderbergh serves us a piping hot, deliciously sexy dish of vengeance.
“Haywire” revolves around black-ops soldier Mallory Kane (Carano), who works for a private military firm hired by the U.S. government to carry out covert missions. After a successful mission in Barcelona, Spain, Kane is sent by her boss, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), to Dublin, Ireland, where she is partnered with Paul (Michael Fassbender), an Irish spy. It is on this mission that Kane learns someone in the firm has set her up. Now, Kane must track down and extract revenge on those responsible.
By the time we enter the story, Kane, already deeply entrenched in her quest for vengeance, makes her way to a secluded diner in Upstate New York. Minutes later, her former colleague, Aaron (Channing Tatum) sits down across from Kane and calmly asks her to leave with him. When she refuses he takes a more violent approach. A brutal brawl ensues with bone-crunching punches and kicks, smashed heads and bodies flying across the room. Eventually, Kane gains the upper hand, takes a young patron, named Scott (Michael Angarano), hostage and commandeers his car.
Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs, who last worked with Soderbergh on “The Limey,” wisely choose to frame their story around a series of flashbacks as Kane recounts her missions in Barcelona and Dublin to Scott. This clever framing device turns the viewer into an active participant.
Acting across from such top-notch actors as, Antonio Banderas ("Puss in Boots," "The Skin I Live In"), Michael Douglas ("A Solitary Man," "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"), Michael Fassbender ("Shame," "A Dangerous Method," "X-Men: First Class") and Ewan McGregor ("Beginners") – each of whom are great as shadowy figures, all using Kane in some way– can be a very daunting task, but Carano, who has no real acting experience, unless you count her stint as Crush on NBC’s short-lived “American Gladiators” reboot, manages to hold her own. Sure, she may sound a bit clunky at times, but she has loads of charisma.
Carano is at her best during the magnificently choreographed and shockingly brutal fight scenes, which are filmed in a mixture of long and medium shots, allowing us to take in one bone-crunching hit after another without getting confused or dizzy. Thanks to Carano’s presence these fight sequences take on an aura of realism that too many action movies nowadays seem to lack.
A master craftsman, Soderbergh, doing the cinematography under his usual pseudonym, Peter Andrews, treats us to some wonderfully effective action sequences. A prime example of this is a chase through the streets and atop the rooftops of Dublin, in which Kane eludes S.W.A.T. capture. Soderbergh photographs all this in his usual washed out, color-coded style, and at one point early on, even throws in a clever black and white sequence.
The smart, swift and globe-trotting script by Dobbs is light on extraneous plot details, keeping the film on a fast and even keel, slowing down only for the most necessary of expository scenes.
Longtime Soderbergh collaborator David Holmes ("Ocean's Eleven" trilogy) augments the action with a rich jazz sound, harkening back to the old caper films of the 1970s. At times, the score fades away, allowing the grunts and bone-crunching hits to guide us through the scene.
“Haywire” is an effective and entertaining action-packed spy caper that serves as a coming-out party for Carano, our next sexy, butt-kicking action heroine.
(“Haywire” is rated R for some intense sequences of violence. It can be seen at AMC Loews Jersey Gardens 20 and other nearby theaters.)
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