Haywire – Review

Starring: Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas

Rated: R

A job in Barcelona goes bad and soon a private security contractor is on the hunt to find out what happened and who betrayed her.

The Face of Womans MMA Gina Carano stars as Mallory Kane a former marine who now works for a contract security agency to handle sensitive missions. While in Barcelona Mallory does a job that doesn’t go as expected and soon finds she is being set up to take a fall.

From the opening fight scene it’s apparent that this isn’t your typical action film and Carano isn’t your typical leading female actor, (Carano has enormous balls and deserves props for taking this role, this is one intimidating cast to be opposite of, particularly in your first foray into acting.) The fights in Haywire are much more visceral and realistic than those in your standard action flick. Carano incorporates moves from her primary fighting style (Muay Thai) most notably using a “Teep” to kick Paul (Michael Fassbender) through a hotel room door, She also showcases her fair share of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu including such submissions as an “Arm Bar” and a “Triangle Choke”. Its Carano’s past that truly sell the fight sequences, there are so many occasions where a female star kicks the crap out of a guy that are just plain laughable, That isn’t Carano, she isn’t some bony actress who lacks fighting technique, By the end of the film you don’t even think about her being a female lead and just think of her as the lead. Gender becomes irrelevant.

Soderbergh not only delivers a new action star, but also a stellar cast to support her. Douglas, McGregor and Bandaras all bring there “A” game while Channing Tatum delivers his best performance to date. The one misstep that Soderbergh makes is having David Holmes Score the film, Holmes the man behind the scores of the “Oceans” Franchise, literally delivers what could be the music for Oceans 14, While Soderbergh workings of Holmes Jazzy Beats worked to great effect in that franchise; in Haywire it is cloyingly distracting. If the intent was to deliver a 1970’s era feel, the mark was greatly missed. I want a film score to enhance the film not immediately take me out of the film, leaving me overjoyed for any scene that is strictly dialog or action. Music should not be the focal point of my attention. This is such a huge error it baffles me how this was allowed to happen. Aside from the horrible choice in music, there are a few small missteps, most noticeably a scene where Mallory is running across rooftops with police hot on her tail, fresh off a fight she wears a knit cap with the brim pulled down low over the eyes for anonymity, she is able to run, jump with said hat limiting her visibility, furthermore this hat stays on her head and never gets knocked off, soon she is using the greatest disguise known to man to evade police, the infamous “hooded sweatshirt” she doesn’t even take the hat off then, just pulls the hood up and walks past the police, I am sure this hat would be part of her description yet the magic of the hoodie conceals it. Later on, Mallory has cornrows, (I am not a hair stylist but I have seen this done in the Bahamas on vacation and it’s not something you can do by yourself quickly) I doubt it would be high on the priority list when agents are swarming in on you. The Improvised explosive device great idea, giving yourself cornrows so you look like a badass, not so much. The final issue is Carano’s voice, something is off she sounds like a trucker who has smoked a pack a day for forty years, No idea if she altered her voice on purpose, had it dubbed in or if they tweaked it in post production but she does not sound like the Gina I spoke to at the press conference. This should be the next mission for Mallory Kane getting to the bottom of her mutated voice.

-UPDATE- Gina has confirmed that Steven Soderbergh changed her voice in post so there wouldn’t be any confusion between the fighter and the actress. (The reasoning is flimsy, but I give Carano credit for not avoiding the question and giving an answer)

-UPDATE From the Studio – This was a specific choice from the beginning to turn Gina into Mallory Kane using every technique available. It’s pretty cool actually and Steven has detailed the hours that went into making it happen. Even though it’s out there, we don’t want to make this the focus of the overall character since Gina’s performance and physicality were so great (as you saw in the film last week). Steven has said it’s funny because directors spend so much time on the way an actor looks, but not usually the way they sound. He felt it was important to make Gina different as Mallory, so her fans could enjoy a totally new persona. It’s like the sonic equivalent of CGI: countless hours of voice coaching, re-recording, editing, pitch manipulation, and just plain trial and error. He said it was incredibly painstaking work. It was a creative choice they were both involved in.

Overall Haywire is a solid and fun Action Film, with great locations, for a newcomer Carano makes a strong impact, with an impressive cast, A few things that lower the bar and the music is just sad.

Grade-81