Last week, I asked my readers whether they minded when directors started doing one thing well, and coming back with it time after time. At the time someone asked “What about Steven Soderbergh?”.

Soderbergh is a director who came on the scene doing thoughtful indie dramas, and has since mixed genres like sampling flavours at Baskin Robbins. In the last fourteen years he’s tackled heist films, sci-fi, revenge, war, neo-noir, and comedy. I think he just needs to make a western and a musical and he’ll complete the set. He has done them all well, and has now turned his attention to action with HAYWIRE. You’d better believe I was anxious to see what he’d do with yet another genre.

HAYWIRE begins with Mallory Kane (MMA fighter Gina Carano) walking into a roadside diner. She is quickly joined by Aaron (Channing Tatum), who we soon understand has been sent to retrieve her. Before we can find out who she is, why she needs to be retrieved, and who wanted her returned, Mallory and Aaron get into an intense fist fight that leads to Mallory commandeering a diner patron and fleeing with him in his car. As they hit the road, we get the story.

Mallory is a contracted black-ops operative who has run multiple missions for the American government, and we’re led to understand early on that she is very good at what she does. She is overseen by a man named Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). Mallory’s flight all seems to stem back to a job pulled in Barcelona – a job set up by American bureaucrat  named Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and a wealthy Spaniard named Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas). The job is to extract a hostage from Barcelona and hand him over to Rodrigo.

We don’t know why, and it’s clear watching the black-ops team work that they don’t care why.

Not long after Mallory returns home, Kenneth – who she was clearly once involved with – sends her on another mission, this time to Ireland. There she’s to meet up with an MI6 agent named Paul…and it’s there that things start to come apart for Mallory.

The key question is “why”?
What cannot be praised highly enough in HAYWIRE is the way Steven Soderbergh has directed the many scenes of hand-to-hand combat. The theory in Hollywood seems to be that every audience member is now ADD, and that in order to fully convey the intensity of a fight, you have to cut it to ribbons until we can barely understand who’s winning. Soderbergh disagrees and HAYWIRE is all the better for it. What we get instead, is a camera willing to stand one extra step back; thus allowing us to watch the exciting choreography play out for itself. When you take that and combine it with foley artists who don’t make every single blow sound like a bag of flour is being dropped, what you get is some rather realistic and intense fight sequences…led by a woman who can clearly handle herself in a fight.

What’s interesting about casting Gina Carano in a film like this is that it brings with it a degree of risk. The risk isn’t apparent anytime she’s running or fighting – quite the contrary in those moments. No, the risk comes during the many moments she needs to appear calculating or thoughtful and deliver a line. It’s the same risk that comes anytime an athlete or singer is asked to act: The results are often squirm-inducing. Happily, Carano pulls those moments off as well. She’s well equipped for such a part as she has a rather expressive face. Thus, the shot could just be a close-up of her camouflaged face listening to something play out in the next room, and her eyes are able to express quite a lot for a non-actor.

This is key, because despite the way HAYWIRE is being sold, it is not a high-octane, balls-to-the-wall action film. It’s a more intelligent revenge film that relies both on a complicated bit of betrayal, and a lot of cat-and-mouse for its protagonist. Think more BOURNE SUPREMACY and less EXPENDABLES. The curious thing about this formula, is that it might not be for everybody – especially those who it is being marketed to. Admittedly, I’m making an assumption here, but I’d wager that your average MMA fan is going to come away from this movie finding it boring, and wishing there was in fact more action.  That might very well be, but where I’m concerned this is the sort of action film I want: intelligent, grounded, and tough.

Going back to Carano, what was equally interesting to seeing her carry a scene was watching the way she played off some very talented actors (and Channing Tatum. Zing!) The story calls for her to show many faces to many people, and every time she does, she gives us another sliver of who Mallory is. She is sophisticated when working opposite Fassbender’s Paul, she is shrewd when negotiating with Michael Douglas’ Coblenz, and she is caring when she’s around her dad played by Bill Paxton. We are different things to different people, and watching Carano embody those different things is part of what makes the story of HAYWIRE so good.

HAYWIRE is a lot of fun in the way Soderbergh takes the tropes of a revenge/action flick and makes them his own. It carries the look and pace we have come to expect from him over twenty-plus years, and wraps it around some new blood. Likewise, it shows that he can draw a solid performance from an inexperienced talent (if you don’t count THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE). If only more directors took these sorts of risks…and more action was this intelligent.

Matineescore: ★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of ★ ★ ★ ★
What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on HAYWIRE.

15 Replies to “HAYWIRE”

  1. I quite enjoyed the movie. I liked how the action sequences were completely silent, except for the sound effects. Also, the Fassbender fight was awesome.

    In addition, even though it was ultimately a bit part, I loved Michael Angarano’s hilarious turn as the poor sap dragged into of things (without spoiling anything, there was one moment with him that caused me to break out laughing).

    1. Yeah, for what he was asked to do, he sure does make the best of it doesn’t he? And I think I know the moment you’re talking about, because I let out a laugh as well.

  2. I was really surprised by this movie. I expected it to good disposable fun but didn’t actually expect it to be so good. The interesting thing about it was how it is perceived. I saw it with a friend who has similar tastes to me, when we talked about it afterwards we discovered that he disliked the thing about it that I liked, the way the action scenes are shot. I really found the longer takes and the camera taking a step back to be refreshing.

    1. I know a few people who weren’t so fussed about the action scenes, and I think it comes down to everyone’s take on action. HAYWIRE might be more for the HANNA school of action.

  3. Coming out of the theatre, I did indeed here a couple of “well, that was pretty boring…” comments. Though I didn’t love the film as much as you, I couldn’t help but be a bit saddened by those comments because the action scenes (not just the fights, but the chases as well) were quite brilliant in how they felt so damn “real”. It’s not that you have to have that – but was it ever refreshing to get it.

    I loved her long chase of that one guy where she gradually caught up to him – it felt like they placed 50 cameras through the streets and id it in one take. And that rooftop chase was also spectacular in that it followed directly (and as close to being in real time as possible) from her walking down the street feeling like she might be followed (a very tense scene). And the soundtrack! Damn!

    However, I don’t quite agree on Carano’s acting (but don’t tell her that, OK!?). It wasn’t horrible by any stretch and for a non-actor, I suppose it was fine. But any extended dialog scene with her started to take me out of the movie (I think she was actually about on the level of Sasha Grey – except Grey’s performance fit her role a bit better since it made sense that her character was flat and unemotional). Also, I couldn’t help feel that there were a couple of “lazy” plot and story points (Kenneth getting stuck on the beach and a few others that I’m forgetting right now).

    Having said that, I do agree with your overall assessment in that I wish there were more action films like this. As you said, “intelligent, grounded, and tough”.

  4. Wow, your review reads much like my own, almost word for word in some instances. I like the comparison to Bourne rather than Expendables. That makes perfect sense.

    As they say, great minds think alike. Glad you enjoyed the film as much as you did.

    1. I’ve had it happen once or twice before where my review matches up with someone else’s, which is wild because I think the general tack is not to read other people’s reactions before you’ve written your own.

      Like you said – great minds!

  5. This movie was a disappointment. I wasn’t disappointed by the action. Soderbergh handled it very well, except in the fight scene between Carano and McGregor.

    However, this was not a well written movie. There were a handful of questionable plot points, choppy pacing and a rather vague ending that left me shaking my head in disappointment.

    Sorry, but I was not impressed. I’m not an “EXPENDABLES” fan. I saw one scene of it on cable and thanked my lucky stars that I never saw it in the theaters. But I now feel as if I had wasted a good deal of money on “HAYWIRE”.

    1. Welcome to The Matinee Rosie.

      No need to be sorry, but I’m curious about your mention of choppy plot points and a vague ending. What didn’t work for you? Feel free to spoil away, but make sure to clearly label as such.

  6. I am honestly REALLY surprised at all of the acclaim this film has been receiving. January movies aren’t supposed to be good! Haha.

    Great review Ryan!

  7. I enjoyed the movie as well. In some ways, it’s very similar to Contagion. Both movies are grounded more in reality than other mainstream fares. Contagion is what could really happen if there is an epidemic, and Haywire is about what could really happen if there is a spy betrayal. It’s shot similarly, and both have settings in different locales. In some ways, they belong in the same universe.

    Gina Carano is fine, she has charisma. As a fan of MMA, I do enjoy the fight scenes. The best one is with Fassebender where it feels more like a sex scene than a fight scene at times. she is at her weakest when there is very little action/dialogue, so the camera just focus on her. But she isn’t a strong enough actor to convey emotions (Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan pulled it off in Drive, but they are much better actors).

    It’s interesting to see 3 genre bending films in the last 12 months: Hanna, Drive and now Haywire. All receive pretty negative reactions from the general audience. I think the reason is that they are not used to watching how directors doing something different with familiar material. Though I think the audience reactions were quite positive when I saw the film in a preview screening.

    1. It feels like almost all of Soderbergh’s stories belong in the same universe…well, maybe not THE INFORMANT!

      Someone called me out for my praise of Carano last night, and it could be that in those down moments she was more down-note than I caught and that I am just projecting things on to a blank slate. For me it worked though. As much as I enjoyed watching her work out how she was going to make her next move, I enjoyed watching her sit and take stock of what had happened. As I said to my friend Greg last night – I certainly enjoyed watching her quiet moments more than I enjoyed watching Sasha Grey’s!

      I’m beginning to think that general action audiences only want FAST FIVE, and that they get bored with anything that isn’t redlining the whole time. Their loss if you ask me!

  8. I haven’t been able to see this one yet, but I figure that Channing Tatum getting beaten down by a girl will be worth the admission price.

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