- Above all else, let this be said about Steven Soderbergh's Haywire: actress and mixed martial arts expert Gina Carano kicks some serious ass. Normally, it would seem implausible for any actress to easily dispatch a couple of well-cured slabs of beef like Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender, but with Carano you never doubt it for a second. If anything, you get the impression instead that she's holding quite a bit back so her fight scenes don't run short. With all due respect to Angelia Jolie, who is deservedly the current go-to action film heroine, finally here's an actress who makes it all seem natural.
- The movie surrounding her is admittedly less natural. In fact, I'd say there aren't many reasons for this film to exist beyond serving as a showcase for Carano's talents. Basically, the story is that black ops agent Mallory Kane (Carano) gets betrayed by her ex-boyfriend and former employer Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). This leads her to a series of confrontations with both trained muscle (Tatum and Fassbender) and the impeccably dressed men who pull the strings (Michael Douglas, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Antonio Banderas). These events are related largely in flashback to a random civilian (Michael Angarano) whose character seemed completely extraneous until I realized that he was the damsel-in-distress.
- Which I suppose brings us to the real point of the film. In Kenneth's words, one "shouldn't think of (Kane) as being a woman. No, that would be a mistake." In much the same spirit, the film puts Carano's remarkable mix of brawn and beauty to good use in stretching action film gender stereotypes left and right. It's not a particularly profound message, to be sure, but I can't blame Soderbergh and writer Lem Dobbs for wanting to get it out there in a genre that is otherwise oversaturated with y-chromosomes. Toss in Haywire's wonderfully jazzy score, impressive tracking shots, and tense action sequences, and you have further evidence that even Soderbergh's lesser films are immensely entertaining and interesting.
- In a rare non-idiot role, Bill Paxton plays Kane's father.
