Movie Review: Haywire

“A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission”

Genre : Action

Director : Steven Soderbergh

Writers : Lem Dobbs

Cast : Gina Coarano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas

Director Steven Soderbergh’s twist on the classic espionage movie is anything but Haywire. If you’ve seen any Soderbergh film then you readily expect to see his deft filmmaking hand present throughout and this film does not fall short of that experience. Despite what the film’s title implies, Haywire is a deliberately paced action thriller that feels like another successful genre film from an Oscar winning director.

Mallory (Gina Carano) is an ex-Marine turned elite covert operative that is on the run after being betrayed by her former government employers. The screenplay, a somewhat boilerplate plot written by Lem Dobbs, is really the least intriguing aspect of this film. By no means am I saying the screenplay is not well written, it’s just that Haywire is more of an exercise in style over substance. Soderbergh has taken a very familiar genre and distilled it down to its essential parts of action and dialogue. The plot is rote and is merely a device to propel Mallory into another action scene.

The ensemble cast of characters played by terrific actors includes Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas. But the star of the film is Gina Carano, who is most notable for her mixed martial arts career. Carano presents us with an understated almost one note performance. She plays the brooding protagonist well enough, but her true performance comes in the action scenes where she gives and takes more than a few substantial fists and feet to faces, kidneys, and groins. The hand to hand combat scenes are brutal and wonderful to watch. And given that Soderbergh wisely pulls the camera back for a wider perspective during these scenes of violence we are able to fully watch every fist and foot collide in the film’s numerous fisticuff filled action scenes.

Soderbergh’s use of the musical score, written by David Holmes, has a prominent role in setting the tone of Haywire. The score contrasts with the action of the film, most noticeably in its whimsical 70’s feel.  Almost as if Soderbergh is winking at us and reminding us that we are supposed to be having fun watching people get shot, punched, kicked or clobbered in the head with a vase. This playful tone works in a distinct way. The action scenes are unforgiving in their approach, in fact brutal, but during these scenes the music is absent; as if Soderbergh clearly wants us to experience the full extent of the brute force being employed in these fight to the death encounters. It’s only when Mallory is on the run, escaping her pursuers that the music is present. In these moments the underlying brass and jazz embellished music is used to emotionally tell us that despite the callous violence acts we just witnessed we are supposed to feel uplifted, exuberant. This honestly didn’t work for me. Initially I was quite taken with the score, but as the film progressed I found that I was torn between feeling elated by the music and feeling tense from the brutality of the violence. It is deliberate choice that may work for some viewers.

Haywire is a methodically directed film partially told in flashback. Using flashback makes for a difficult film to follow and if you’re not paying close attention to the scant narrative details of the plot, you will likely be lost as to what is going on. Soderbergh, again performing his own cinematography under the name Peter Andrews, has given Haywire a distinctive color palette. Each location has a separate look and feel and because of this we are easily able to differential between the different timelines across the many different locations. Most notable is the wonderful use of orange and yellow in the early flashback sequences in Barcelona and how it contrasts with the slightly monochromatic color palette used during the present day scenes. Overall, it’s a visually striking and appealing film and it should be pointed out that while Soderbergh has been behind the camera for many of his own films, he has not shot an action film before. I can happily say that I enjoyed watching his deliberate visual style of action.

Haywire is a solid action film and had it more plot than style I would have enjoyed it more. The action is enjoyable and the characters are likeable, but at the end of the film I was left feeling a little empty and wanting more emotional connection with the lead character, Mallory. That being said, I look forward to viewing Soderbergh’s next attempt at telling an action film.