Haywire

Steven Soderbergh was rumored to want to make a movie around MMA fighter Gina Carano. Carano has achieved a lot in her less than thirty years. She dominated contenders in the reimaging of American Gladiators as “Crush.” She went 7 – 0 in her MMA career before getting beat by Cris Santos for the belt. Now she can now add leading actress to her ever growing resume.   Lew Dobbs was given the task of writing a movie centered around Carano, which resulted in this weekend’s film, Haywire.

Haywire opens on Mallory Kane (Carano) entering a café. Shortly after, Aaron (Channing Tatum) joins her. He is one of Mallory’s co-workers and he has been sent to bring her in after a mission gone wrong. A quick fight leaves Aaron unconscious on the floor and Mallory taking Scott (Michael Angarano) “hostage” and stealing his car. We are then treated to the backstory as to how we came to this café in upstate New York.

Mallory works for Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). He runs a freelance operative company contracted by the government which is hired by Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) for an off-the-books mission. Mallory is sent on this mission. It is an extraction mission in Barcelona. It goes well. She is then immediately sent to Dublin on another mission to make contact with MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender). This mission goes awry and Mallory is put on the run as she tries to figure out what happened, and clear her name.

Steven Soderbergh has never really made a true action film. He has made a trilogy of heist films (Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen), dramas (Traffic, Erin Brockovich), and thrillers (Contagion), but never a full on action movie. The action was on par with what you would expect from such a successful and accomplished director. He has some very long, especially by today’s standards, uncut scenes. But, it causes the movie to feel like it is moving a little slow. Carano did a lot of her own stunts and fight sequences. The fighting was raw and brutal and Soderbergh uses the longer shots, instead of the quick-cut editing used by more action films today, to keep the realism high.

Where Haywire fails is in the storytelling and script. As I mentioned above, this is Carano’s first real acting gig, and it shows. While Carano is a badass, her acting is not. To counteract this, Soderbergh and casting director Carmen Cuba surround Carano with all the people I have mentioned above and Bill Paxton (as her father). The other way they attempted to keep the attention off Carano’s acting was Dobbs’s script.  It contains very few lines of dialog for her. There are large chunks of the film that have no dialog at all: montages, chase scenes, shootouts. These scenes are horribly scored by David Holmes. His original score sounds like it belongs in an elevator or hotel lobby more than an action film.

Haywire’s plot is so confusing and convoluted to keep you from realizing there’s actually no plot at all. As the movie plods along, you have no idea who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. I looked at my watch and realized that they had about five minutes left to explain the plot. Well, this was accomplished by two of the actors walking and talking and telling the entire plot of the film. What a terrible way to convey the story! In the end, you are left wondering what the motives of a few characters really were. Although I enjoyed the action a lot, I did not enjoy the film as a whole as much as I thought I would. It was a very long 93 minutes. Despite this film, I think with a few more films under her belt, Carano could turn into a nice action heroin.

RATING: 6.5/10