Martial arts, action flick shows director’s signature style
As many people know, January is the worst month for movies.
For instance, 2011 brought us “Season of the Witch.” (Remember how bad that was? No. Good.) This year, we’ve already had “The Devil Inside,” which is definitely a strong, early contender for the next year’s Golden Raspberry awards. However, each January has at least one more-than-decent film.
This year, that movie is “Haywire,” an action film directed by Steven Soderbergh (“Ocean’s Eleven,” “Contagion”). “Haywire” can best be described as a typical Soderbergh film, featuring his style of cinematography, a larger-than-average cast and a couple of good thrills.
Most of the story is told in flashback. Mixed martial artist Gina Carano, in her debut lead role, plays Mallory Kane, a black ops agent working for a private contractor. While working a job in Dublin, Ireland, Mallory becomes the target of an attempted setup by her superiors, framing her for a murder she didn’t commit. From this moment on, the story remains pretty straightforward as Mallory hunts down the people who have betrayed her.
As usual, Soderbergh works with a large cast, and he surrounds Carano with a supporting cast of recognizable male names. There’s Ewan McGregor (“Star Wars” prequel trilogy, “Big Fish”) as Mallory’s ex-boyfriend and boss.
Michael Fassbender (“X-Men: First Class”) is the agent who attempts to frame Mallory and kill her. Channing Tatum (“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”) plays Mallory’s fellow agent with whom she has a fling during a mission in Barcelona. Other names include Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton.
Probably the most interesting aspect of this film is the cinematography. Soderbergh usually acts as the cinematographer for his films, and he doesn’t rely on quick cuts that normally ruin the excitement within most action films.
Instead, the action occurs during long- and medium-ranging shots. This artful style allows Carano to demonstrate her arsenal of acrobatic fighting skills without the audiences becoming confused about what is going on, a problem that quick cuts normally cause.
Even though this camera style is a major positive in the film, some questions still arise about Soderbergh’s mixture of shot selections. There are shots in black and white, filtered with desaturated colors, over-the-shoulder shots and some shaky scenes with handheld cameras. Some of these cinematography choices seem to be without rhyme or reason, but others serve a more apparent purpose.
One scene, for instance, depicts Mallory walking down the street to elude a failed attempt on her life. The camera is placed in front as she is walking, and we see what goes on behind her. This choice of shot helps raise the tension of the current situation while the audience sees a man follow Mallory and a car pull out from a parking spot as she passes it.
Are these people who are intentionally spying on Mallory, or is it just a sense of sheer paranoia?
Carano’s role as the badass female agent isn’t very demanding in terms of dialogue, especially since her lines consist mostly of one-liners. What her role does demand is to look sexy and act tough, two traits she definitely pulls off. But whether or not Carano can actually act will remain a mystery until we see her in a more emotionally demanding role.
While other women like Angelina Jolie and Milla Jovovich have pulled off the hard-core action heroine in the past, not many have brought such bone-crushing physicality as Carano has in this film. The action in this film is long and very brutal, with characters taking superhuman beatings. We’re talking hot coffee thrown in the face, head smashes against hard surfaces, constant kicks — and Carano throws in an arm bar or two.
While there are some holes in the story, “Haywire” still manages to entertain with its action and great camera work, despite it not being Soderbergh’s best.