This is not my favorite Soderbergh film. Haywire has a lot of the Soderbergh elements
I like—economical editing and storytelling; elegant lighting and camera
movement; rich sets; and impressive acting from pros who’ve worked with him
before (Tatum, Douglas), pros new to working with him (Fassbinder, Banderas,
McGregor), and a non-professional who anchors the film
(Carano). And the intelligence I’m used
to seeing in a Soderbergh film.
Haywire is also an interesting take on the international
spy/action thriller, something like the James Bond or Bourne franchise. It is spread out over a couple of European
settings and several in the US, and there are many action scenes of daring do
by the MMA champ Carano. All this should add up to an excellent film.
Yet, it doesn’t. With
all of these great elements, Haywire doesn’t engage its audience. It’s hard to sympathize with any of the
characters because we don’t spend enough time with any of them to get to know
or care about them. The empty center of this film is the risk that Soderbergh
runs when he casts a non-pro actor as the lead—Carano does excellent stunts,
but I never felt for her situation much.
The plot of the film is pretty much at the limit of what a director can
expect an audience to hang on to, too. I
still don’t know why Mallory tells her backstory to the guy she kidnaps from
the diner. And if an action movie is to
hold us, it needs some kind of stakes, like the life or death of the United
States of America. Haywire simply gives
a mystery we don’t care much about.
Perhaps Soderbergh is just trying on the conventions of the
action thriller, but in this movie, they don’t fit well. Haywire is one beautiful sequence after
another that doesn’t much go anywhere the audience is interested in going.
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