The League of Austen Artists: Movie Review: Haywire (Calif.Lit. Review)

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Movie Review: Haywire (Calif.Lit. Review)

January 21st, 2012 at 12:39 pm

: CLR Rating:

Michael Fassbender and Gina Carano in Haywire

Haywire is a very solid and well-crafted contribution to the spy genre, with a smart and complex script from Lem Dobbs (who worked with Soderbergh on Kafka and The Limey). However, the film’s real fun comes from playing “Spot the Soderbergh Reference.” Filmmakers do not exist in a vacuum; inevitably they are going to borrow from another film or director at some point in their career. Quentin Tarantino is the most unabashed example of this trend and with each new Tarantino film myriad websites jockey to point out which movies he is paying tribute to in his new project.

In Haywire, though, Soderbergh has created an almost Frankenstein-esque amalgamation of his previous films. Watching Haywire is like watching a Soderbergh Greatest Hits compilation. For each of his international locations, Soderbergh manipulates the film’s color palette to differentiate the settings and emotions (Traffic). Many of the scenes, especially those indoors where the outside is visible through a window, are filmed with a soft focus lens giving the scene an ethereal calm (The Informant!). Soderbergh chose a female non-actor (Carano) who is famous in her chosen profession as his protagonist (The Girlfriend Experience) and tailored the part to her strengths. (He even goes so far as to re-create one scene from The Girlfriend Experience.) Most obvious is the music from David Holmes which is almost indistinguishable from the Ocean’s Twelve score, written by David Holmes. The list goes on.

Does this diminish the film’s overall success? Not at all. Soderbergh is clearly having fun behind the camera, throwing everything he can think of at the audience. The most impressive (and refreshing) aspect of the film is how Soderbergh chose to cut the film’s numerous fight sequences. Or, more accurately, chose not to cut them. In films like The Bourne Identity and its imitators, we are inundated with average shot lengths of less than one second, making it difficult to actually see what is happening. In Haywire, Soderbergh essentially sets the camera down and walks away. The fights are therefore so much more brutal to watch as we see every punch, kick, throw and slam with perfect clarity.

Which leads us to Carano. Having already dominated the world of female mixed martial arts (MMA), Carano easily assumes the role of ass-kicking special operative Mallory Kane. Almost like a 21st century “Man With No Name,” Mallory only speaks when absolutely necessary. Carano is surprisingly convincing given she has no acting experience prior to this film. Her cold stare is quite intimidating and she carries herself in a way one would expect from a Marine with years of experience.

Joining Carano is a supporting cast of absolutely fantastic actors. McGregor deserves a great deal of praise for his performance as Mallory’s duplicitous boss and the man every audience member will want to strangle. He is the perfect mixture of charm and smugness. Fassbender, who seems to be in every movie these days, is also terrific. We are never quite sure of Paul’s motives or what he is thinking and Fassbender betrays nothing with his constantly shifting facial expressions and confident smile.