Completing our trend of reviewing movies starring tough women (the bouncy bounty hunter in One For the Money, the robotic vampire in Underworld, and the ultimate bitch in The Woman in Black) is Haywire, the feature film debut of former MMA star Gina Carano. In it she plays a double crossed private security contractor out to settle the score with the men who tried to kill her after she’d either flirted or fucked them (Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, and Ewan McGregor) but not for that reason.
What Works: Carano is surprisingly strong here and even if she doesn’t show much acting range, that’s never stopped Kate Beckinsale and she’s actually suppose to act in her movies. Even better is that I actually BELIEVED Carano as this character instead of the usual 90 pound models we’re supposed to believe can beat up the 300 pound guys they fight (Soderbergh’s stated reason for making this movie with her). The fights aren’t the weirdly bloody-yet-bloodless fight scenes in movies like Underworld or even Kill Bill, but instead knockdown, realistic fights to the death as expertly choreographed as anything in the Jason Bourne films. Also, it’s good to see Michael Douglas show up in anything and he enlivens every scene he’s in. And instead of making this into a campy B-movie, I respected that Soderbergh (who couldn’t make a B-movie with a gun to his head, he’s just not lazy enough to not go for the gold) took the material seriously and did try to make it as realistic as he could.
What Doesn’t Work: I’m really beginning to wonder if Ewan McGregor will ever be good in a movie again, and drop it with his usual bland, deer-in-the-hightlights shtick that he employs in everything from this to Beginners. It’s pretty bad when a non-pro like Carano is better than a man who’s been at it for twenty years merely by her standing still, smirking, and looking sexy as hell. Also, the plot in this movie is a mere afterthought and an excuse to stage Carano in fight scenes. You can understand why Soderbergh built a movie around her but he could have spent a little more time building a better script around her as well.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Cast Fassbender in McGregor’s part as it’s clear he needs more screen time than his two scenes, and makes more of an impression. And watching this movie made me feel Soderbergh—-one of my favorite directors for his curiosity about the way things work—-could make a great docu-drama about private defense contractors or contract killing, much in the same way he did for drugs in Traffic.