Steven Soderbergh is an interesting director; he is not a director that everyone knows by name or sight, but his movies tend to do well in the mainstream market. Soderbergh is not a recognizable name like Spielberg (to many), but he is well respected and his catalog is admirable. In the past year he has directed two films, the first being Contagion, which was met with lukewarm appreciation and the other is Haywire. As many (I hope) of you know, winter time is the dumping ground for films that are not that…great. They have been pushed out of the way of the Oscar season and are left to flail around like a fish out of water during the “cold” months. There are some films that are decent though, even if they don’t have a huge impact; Haywire is one of these films.
Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) runs out the woods and heads into a diner in upstate, New York. She is obviously trying to avoid someone as he hurries inside and glances around nervously as she finds herself a booth. After some time has passed, a man named Aaron (Channing Tatum) pulls into a parking spot outside the diner where Mallory is, and proceeds to go inside. The young, handsome man sits himself across from Mallory and tells her to come with him; she asks some cryptic questions and when she refuses to go along with Aaron, he attacks. She fights Aaron off and grabs a diner-customer named Scott, and makes him show her where his car is. Mallory forces Scott to come along with her and she begins to tell him how she got into this predicament.
So goes the story of an agent who has been targeted by her former employers because she knew too much. You won’t find anything new here in terms of a revenge/spy film; there is backstabbing and double crossing from all the people who you would expect to take part in the said backstabbing and double crossing. That is not the main draw here though; the character of Mallory is where this film places its stake. Haywire is essentially about a girl and her raging knuckles as she gets revenge; Gina Carano who plays as Mallory Kane is an MMA fighter (in real life that is), so the action scenes deal heavily with martial arts and though weapons are used, Mallory enjoys/prefers punching her way through the cast. Most times, women cast in this role tend to be unbelievable; the actresses are skinny and they look as though they could barely take down a child. Haywire got it right by casting Carano because she is a muscular, beautiful woman who is capable of obliterating everything in her crosshairs.
The fight scenes are worth the price of admission; because of Carano being skilled in MMA, the violence is brutally physical and aesthetically pleasing. One thing that Soderbergh did that won me over is he removed music from the fight scenes; this makes every punch, throw, and jab impactful to the viewer’s ears. With the music removed, the intensity is heightened and I had to hold my breath for some key moments. Thankfully, the fights were not over stylized, which will appeal to a more grounded crowd.
There is a plethora of actors in Haywire, but that is usually the case with a film by Soderbergh; he knows how to take a large, respectable cast and make every one of their characters important, even if they have limited screen time. Fassbender, Douglas, Paxton are to name a few and their contributions are appreciated; without them, this film may not have worked because even with all the awesome “awesomeness” going on, Haywire succumbs to a problem that keeps it from being a phenomenal film.
Haywire’s only glaring and crippling problem is that is does not have the emotional pull that it needs to make a connection with the viewer. While the story holds together and the action scenes are some of the best I have seen in awhile, it all lacks a point or a soul. There are moments that require you to feel for some characters but because of how Haywire is written, it completely misses. The espionage is fantastic and Mallory’s story is compelling but it does not have the draw that you would want to see in this film. Haywire actually suffers from the same problem I had with Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, where there is another layer that is missing from the script. MI4 is a better film in many ways compared to Haywire, but I digress. Haywire feels as if it is just getting from one point to the next with lots of punching in between, but that’s not such a bad thing.
Haywire is a great, action film but it will leave you feeling a bit empty because there is little heart in the script. Don’t let that detour you though; the fight scenes are outrageously fun and realistic, the story is interesting (even if by the book), and it’s great to see so many wonderful actors do their thing in ninety minutes. Sure it lacks a certain something, but what else are you going to see in these cold, winter months?
(7/10)
